La Corda d'oro 2c Crescendo
by SetsunaKou
Summary: The continuing story of the lives & loves of the boys & girls from Seiso Academy. Set 2 years after the end of Corda 2f Encore-will Kahoko ever be able to reunite with Len? Will the rest of the boys finally realize to whom their hearts really belong?
1. Chapter 1 - Into the Blue Ether

_**La Corda D'Oro Crescendo**_

Written by HarukaKou

_Disclaimer: We do not own La Corda d'oro ^^_

This book is dedicated to:

_My precious parents, who gave me a wondrous childhood blessed with imaginary elephants and a real beagle,  
__a farm of wildflowers and mountain rainbows, tree climbing dress up dolls, friendly brown caterpillars-  
And most importantly- a big sister who dared to dream big dreams that unlocked the magical world of Imagination  
for a lifetime set to the glorious music God's Inspiration gives us glimpses of-_

_Life's symphony, called Love..._

* * *

**Chapter 1: "Into the Blue Ether..."**

It could not be a more dismal overcast day, despite the unusually warm weather blowing in this blustery Vienna tree-lined street. The forecasted snows had not yet fallen, but the change in season as Autumn transformed into Winter's dull scenery was enough to depress many stouter a heart than of this particular stroller.

The slender figure of a striking young man pauses in his slow paced trek across the deadened grasses. His gaze travels upward, but not necessarily focusing on the House Doebling apartment high-rise that loomed through the grayness he was heading towards. No, it was the bleak horizon itself that caught his attention-or more precisely-his inattention.

It was far too often now that foreign exchange student Tsukimori Len found himself in a dazed slump. The famed city of Vienna, for all its musical and artistic merits of inspiration and genius could never fulfill the place in a young heart that longed for his true love, miles and miles away, beyond the gray sky that separated them. This was such a day for Tsukimori Len. Perhaps his musical skills and knowledge had expanded since he left Japan for the wide experience of the artistic capital of the world, but so did his loneliness. And that, amidst his violinist's genius, was reflected in his playing.

This was such a day for Tsukimori Len. Perhaps his musical skills and knowledge had expanded since he left Japan for the wide experience of the artistic capital of the world, but so did his loneliness. And that, amidst his violinist's genius, was reflected in his playing. Despite glowing reports and high placed respect and recommendations by many of his Austrian music school teachers at the Vienna Conservatory for Music he attended, not a one of their praises of his talented performances was as meaningful to him as a single girl's gentle approving applause at his music. In his eyes, no one could ever touch the irreplaceable emotion of her smile.

"There you are, Tsukimori-kun! I wondered where you had gotten off to," Ousaki Shinobu's friendly face was filled with concern for his roommate. The twenty-something older man had come to feel this way more and more, over the past few months. For despite the ice blue lad's impeccable grades and skillful playing, Ousaki could see a building sense of empty triumphs and useless downhearted successes. It wasn't the highbrow musical teachers' praises that Tsukimori Len longed for. It wasn't the fame and fortune offering public he really played for. It was all still for the one girl who gave light to Tsukimori's dull world.

Without so much as a passing word or greeting nod of acknowledgement to his older flatmate, a quite absorbed in his own thoughts, a solemn Tsukimori Len crosses the room to gaze forlornly through the window. His finger-run-through blue hair a mess by now, the disheveled man pensively loosens his tie and button up shirt then brushes back the curtains with a yearning backhand, as if the darkened sky held some secret desire just beyond his reach.

Because it did. With a lonely sigh, Tsukimori unconsciously seeks out the one constant companion he has come to rely on as steady partner for more years of his eighteen birthdays than the musical genius remembered.

The violin had been a part of him since such an early age, with a skill so remarkable, it was startling, for it came naturally to this gifted child of two renowned artists in the musical field as his accomplished violinist father and celebrated pianist mother Hamai Misa.

But the pure skill with the instrument of his early youth had developed into a full-blown matured passion in these past two years. A passion that was no longer limited to Len's rendering of his violin, due solely to the fact his once still heart was moved to be inspired by another's love.

As if drawn by an unseen magnetic force half a world away, Len had mindlessly drifted over to his music case and subsequently lifted its golden oak to lean his chin on its rest, by rote. Yet he was so utterly distraught and disoriented, that the queen of all musical instruments, his violin, like the clouded face of the moon, refused him refuge tonight, Len's bow unable to even strike the first note with his heart so encompassed by sad loneliness.

His dejected eyes, instead of drawing his bow across his signature instrument, stare ahead dully, as if the predominant part of his mind was located somewhere else across the night sky entirely. Thoroughly engrossed in cherished memories, Tsukimori envisions what **she** was doing right now, thinking right now, feeling right now- until her sparkling aura envelops his dispirited heart, as his lips in his breathy melodic tones part with her name mutely unspoken upon them...

"...Kahoko..." Len could suddenly feel her warmth, almost taste her sweet kisses, and hear her unique tone color, as if she were beside him again. There was no one who knew his soul more intimately, the bond of music's golden cord linking them together in ways that went further than his comprehension.

For when she smiled and he looked into the golden sun that rose in each of her eyes, it was there and only there that Len could see the truth reflected in his own mind. The innocence of an unpretentious girl who opened up new wondrous worlds to him, performed an eternal duet that reverberated in the music for her alone that echoed through his soul...

And the instrument that bore the mantle of their legendary Violin Romance begins to softly serenade a simple 'Ave Maria' as it did then, its plaintive solitary tune travelling beyond the surly bonds of physical distance and through the intangible blue ether...

Noting the particular depth of the taciturn mood turned melancholy as he comes to stand alongside his errant friend, Ousaki adjusts his glasses with a worried brow, following Tsukimori's silent gaze upwards at the empty sky. It was breaking Ousaki's heart to see strong-minded Tsukimori like this, day after day, month after passing month. There was such loneliness and longing in that face, as confused eyes seemed to be straining to glimpse something he knew existed there, but was always just beyond his reach. Tender Ousaki knew just what that something was and also just what to do about it. After all, Tsukimori's parents had asked him to accompany their awkward son and keep a helpful eye on him-to be the friend Tsukimori was completely socially inept at making.

_Tsukimori-kun...I know how much you miss her...your Hino-san is a very special young woman..._He thinks to himself, smiling inwardly at the thought of sweet-faced girl patiently awaiting Len back home in Japan.

So right there and then, Shinobu Ousaki decided to be that friend. The truest kind, who did what was right for his friend's heart, ignoring whatever opposition or obstacles stood in his way.

He knew the _what_. Now all Ousaki had to do was figure out the _how_.

* * *

_On the other side of the coin..._

_R-ring! R-ring! R-ring! R-ring..._

_Click. _

The sun starts to set over the hilly Eastern Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa, the falling dusk soon pervading the Ferris University private music rooms that she often haunted. Hino Kahoko dejectedly puts her cell phone back into the amply filled music bag. She stuffs the crumpled overused practice sheets she'd been doggedly working on in, as if they were nothing more than used empty wrapping paper after the presents had been extracted from them.

That's exactly how her heart felt about this time of day lately, as if all the glitter and shine it once had, had been ripped from it. Well, maybe that was a bit overdramatic, but Kahoko did feel the drama of love, separation and longing all too acutely.

It had been two years since he left for Vienna, and she has lived each day just to hear the sound of his voice for those few precious moments on the phone once or twice a week. Every other moment was spent improving her skills at the only thing that made her feel close to him, as if his spirit was somehow inside her whenever she played the violin.

So play and play and play she must, as Hino spent each night and day hard at practice, her musical skills indeed improving as she seemed to channel her Len's genius, their bond so strong. But that still didn't make it easy for a girl in love to have not a glimmer of hope of being with her sweetheart again for at least another two years - or maybe more!

_Surely he'll be a success, and then he'll have to stay abroad for who knows when! How long until we're together again? I must work harder, so I can be good enough to join him someday! Someday..._

She unconsciously clutches the two gold and silver rings entwined at her neck, as she replays the tender scene when a certain blue-haired violinist had bestowed it upon her. With tears in her eyes, then, the same as now, Hino still could feel Tsukimori's thin, musical fingers slip the necklace around her neck, assuring her that it wasn't a promise he required of her-just a hope that someday she would put it on where it belonged and that would show him when she was ready for it to be forever. Lost in this daydream about Tsukimori, she leaves the practice room where she spent most of her current life.

She starts her trudging walk home, absentmindedly taking the long way by route of Seiso. Each passed gate was a point of reminiscence of a past event with Tsukimori. Each step was a walk down memory lane.

_Oh_, _Seiso_… _I wish those days never ended. We were so happy there… I wish... I wish..._

"Oh!" Lost in her own thoughts, halfway down the hill, Hino didn't know if it was her inattentive faults or that of the elbow jostling her. Either way, the result was flying papers on the wind, bouncing purse and schoolbags rolling down the hill in a general mess.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Hino-chan! In a hurry! Gotta get to work! Can't stop! Already late! Sorry! Sorry!" In a flurry of apologies, picking up handfuls of papers, bags and poor discarded purses and ribbons like a Speedy Gonzales whirlwind, Hino catches just the flash of that famous Hihara Kazuki smile in her flustered direction. He had knocked her down and then righted her again in a matter of seconds. And by the blink of an eye's end, Hihara was gone, dashing down the hill at breakneck speed, dust kicking up in his speedy wake.

"Hee hee…hee," Hino tries to giggle at the strange event, though finding it not truly funny. No one seemed to ever have much time for her anymore, even her old friend. She hadn't seen the busy Seiso OB for...

…_Has it been as long as last Christmas? Now that I'm at University, I rarely see anyone. I mean, Mori-san is my school mate and she __**tries**__... she and Kaji-kun who's now a student at Ferris' male branch, Meiji University, both do... but..._

And then, there was that park, there was that cherry tree, standing still and cold before her. Hino could hear the leaf whistle he made still echoing in her head from two years ago.

* * *

_"That is...a little one will be fine. Right now, as I blew that leaf, I remembered how delighted Mother was as Father told me how...I miss those times..."_

* * *

And so does a nostalgic Kahoko as the pent-up tears won't stop flowing. She now begins sobbing as she collapses against the tree, exhausted both mentally and physically, practicing day and night, and pining for him every second in between.

"Hino! Are you all right!?" Her worst nightmare come true, the gruff voice signaling to her that the last person she wanted to find her in a puddle of self-pitying tears over the man who he once deemed a stuck up bitter rival was hovering near.

_No, no, no...not him…_

Tsuchiura Ryotaro had not expected to find his ex-classmate sobbing on an autumn saddened tree. Was she physically hurt? Was she so distressed over being abandoned by her so-called devoted lover? To the point of the strong-willed redhead being driven to tears?


	2. Chapter 2 - Melting the Ice

**Chapter 2: ****"Melting The Ice"**

_"T_suchiura-kun! I'm fine, really... I'm just fine. It's just... it's just... I miss him so much! I miss Tsukimori-kun so much..." Her voice reduced to a whisper of his name, Hino bursts into full-fledged unmitigated tears now, letting the pent-up frustration and pain spill over.

For some reason, she always felt at ease with Tsuchiura Ryotaro. He was more like a big brother to her than any of the others. He was the sturdy friend, the reliable comrade who was always there to help her, to bail her out when the chips were down.

The shoulder she could easily cry on.

And so she does. Ryotaro's strong pair of arms wrap around the girl's trembling weak ones as Hino turns to lean on him instead of the  
culprit tree. It was a pretty picture of compassion and friendship.

"...Ryo..."

Unless you're the jealous type of girlfriend that Sakimoto Mizue  
never claimed to be. But she did claim to have been his girlfriend, once upon a time. Once upon the happiest time in her life, but that was soon followed by the saddest, when they parted ways.

That was the past, and she should just leave it there, deciding to be Ryo's best friend now. She had determined to be content to just be 'one of the guys,' his right-hand pal, encouraging him in both his  
music studies and sports career. She thought him a brilliant pianist, an MVP in soccer, an all around great friend—not to mention the man she was still in love with.

'_First love dies hard, if ever at all',_ she had heard someone once say.

But that was her secret. No one must know. Sakimoto never once confided it to anyone. For no confidante could ever be trusted with her most guarded secret: She's been madly in love with the boy next door for as long as she could remember.

All through her formative school years, despite her own romantic notions of poetry and literature, there was no one else, no matter how hard she tried. There could never be. So she had thrust herself into her own career passion, whilst Ryo now was persevering in pursuing his.

But perhaps, the music wasn't all he was pursuing. After all, Sakimoto was eyewitness to this tender embrace just as she was coming to meet Tsuchiura on their way home for a quick bite of dinner at the Hihara family restaurant.

She had an urge to turn and run, heart breaking at the sight. She had had suspicions in this direction, but she also knew she had no claim to Ryo's love anymore, and yet...

"Hello, hello. What's going on over there? Am I going to have to report a scandalous romance among rival music school students? What WILL Tsukimori-kun say?" Amou Nami's arms soon were wrapped around Sakimoto's surprised shoulders from behind. In a wink, Amou's trusty camera whips out. She was about to take an incriminating snapshot of the embracing pair when—

"Keiichi! Look out!" A voice cries out from the distance, smashing to smithereens any hope for Amou's newsflash scoop scene.

Unobserved as they approached by all spectators at the park entrance, a quiet trio is led by the boy angel Shimizu Keiichi who's grabbed by his two pretty feminine Seiso students guard on either side of him.

Fuyuumi Shoko and Megumi Shouji tug him away just in time, saving the blonde beauty from crashing into an unsuspecting lamppost.

Shimizu was so absorbed with his latest composition that he was blissfully unaware of trivial things like obstacles or traffic on the road. But the two timid girls were used to it by now. Shimizu was becoming more and more absent-minded as he was maturing as a composer. So they felt it was their duty, as fellow Concours participants, Seiso same grade level students, and caring friends to boot, to fearlessly touch the ethereal creature in ways neither delicate girl would ever handle a normal boy. But Shimizu Keiichi was far and above away from ever being called 'normal'.

"Good thing I've got your back, Keiichi! You'd be sure lost without me!" Etou Kiriya was the kind to take credit for everything.

But over the last two years, if one observed closely, the quick-witted youth who had a sharp tongue had been slowly growing a tender heart—albeit a small one. Etou often found himself inexplicably following this little group of friends around after his benefactor/uncle/director of the academy had advised that he become familiar with his fellow  
ensemble members for "better orchestral cohesion."

"Whatever, old man," Etou had murmured under his breath then, having more than his share of teenage rebellion to appreciate his uncle's experienced jewels of wisdom.

But gradually, the confident youth had become a little more considerate under shy Fuyuumi Shoko's patient guide, a bit more inspired to love music for music's sake under Shimizu Keiichi's dedicated influence, and a tad more gentle when it came to speaking to delicate female hearts such as Shouji Megumi's. All three had quietly left their mark on the neglected boy's soul-especially Shouji.

Etou found himself unconsciously relying on the sweet voiced girl, for she was always at the ready to be his accompanist any hour of the day, he merely had to beckon with a new piece of music he wished to practice and she'd come running.

Shouji's piano prowess had expanded since the days of the Seiso concours. Hino Kahoko's inspiring determination, coupled with Tsukimori Len's truthful words had changed the jealous heart into a repentant one. Those days - those acts of betrayal and deceit—still haunted Shouji's mind from time to time. She had done it for jealousy and love of a boy who never would have even spoken to her, if not for the sake of Hino Kahoko. For months, a blue ice wall had stood between Shouji and any thought of forgiveness or friendship. And although Hino Kahoko's golden friendship had pierced through the cold eyes of defeat, Shouji's lost love remained in a tiny corner of her heart that she couldn't completely dissolve alone.

That would have to take something new and warm and exciting to do the job.

Something like a Violin Romance of her own.

She could never stop the red-hot blush that crept up the back of her neck, threatening to overtake her cheeks, whenever Etou-kun was near. Somehow this up and coming wine-red colt had raced to the gate of her heart alongside the elite ice blue stallion in ways Shouji didn't think possible. Was this the love her eager heart had longed for? All she knew was that she would do anything to please Etou Kiriya. Her piano skills had been improving by leaps and bounds whenever she played for the slick, stylish, and hot! tempered teen.

_Was this new and exciting feeling real love?_

Stealing a long glance at the smirking boy as he walks beside Shimizu with his arms tossed carelessly above his head, Shouji recalls the first moment she had first met Etou Kiriya.

It was whilst she was in attendance of the annual Seiso Cultural Festival that Megumi's fellow pianist, Yunoki Miyabi, insisted the shy girl should join in the activities too. But Shouji was far too quiet and much too inhibited to wish to participate in many of the fun festival's boisterous activities like her classmates were planning.

But when Fuyuumi-senpai had contracted a nasty cold and could not perform the role of Alice in Wonderland for Shimizu Keiichi's adorable floppy-eared White Rabbit to help serve tea beside, their new enthusiastic kouhai Yunoki Miyabi offered to pitch in.

Shimizu had already made arrangements for the local Catholic church to receive for the charity collection box the earned proceeds of their Festival's quaintly makeshift tearoom that the angel bunny volunteered his slothenly services for. Miyabi-chan was game for the exciting idea, she not minding filling in for Fuyuumi-senpai one bit! It was fun to be dolled up in the poofy petticoated blue and white apron frock of 'Alice in Wonderland' for any reason. And generously donating time and shared profit made the outing all the more enjoyable!

But mousy Shouji Megumi couldn't find a plausible way to refuse the charitable dress-up cosplay competition after bright, bold and brazen Miyabi had entered both their names as competitors for her new Seiso friend and soon began digging through the Cultural Festival's leftover theatre stock for their fancy dress.

Shouji had unknowingly chosen to wear the Lucrezia Borgia  
Renaissance full length brocade dark blue gown before realizing the on-the-rack infamous daughter of a notorious Italian Pope costume possessed a companion male counterpart. By the time Miyabi had gotten Megumi's nervous form primped and dressed for the  
competition and she was red-faced on display before the judges, timid Shouji knew it was a mistake to agree, even if it was for charity's sake.

That is until, upon a dare, her cosplay partner of erstwhile lover Cesare Borgia himself, to much uproar strode out across the stage in all his deep maroon and gold striped wine caped glory, a glow of dazzling sparkles in his masterfully resplendent wake.

And totally stole her breath away with just once glance of attention, for Megumi had only glimpsed in Seiso's hallways and music auditoriums the much discussed transfer student from America, who just happened to be not only the hottest, coolest, instant star of the Seiso Music Academy due mostly to his stellar super talented violin performance- but he was also Director Kira's closest direct living relation.

Not to mention drop dead gorgeous, too.

"Hey~y! Lucrezia Borgia, I presume! I always wanted to say that." Etou had smirked at his own witticism then.

"Wait! Are you that girl who plays piano accompaniment so well that Kahoko was telling me about? Maybe we can get together sometime during the week? I could use a good pianist like you're said to be to back me up in practice sessions. So how about it, Megumi?"

_Oh!_

Her breath catching_, _Shouji nearly swoons again now as she practically did then, her convoluted heart muscle skipping a few beats too many whenever in Etou Kiriya's presence, all the time since their first encounter.

_'How about it—**Megumi**?!' Etou-kun says my name! No one else ever cared enough to say my name... **He** probably never even knew my name..._

* * *

In the flash of a memory of that regrettable day, she recalls a certain man's icy glare upon her, as dispassionate and cold as a cool blue Russian arctic wind, now in stark contrast to the wine red vibrancy of a hot sunset melting over the ice capped ocean waves, whenever this new violinist played upon the strings of Shouji's penitent heart...

"Whoa-oh, Megumi! Don't take a page from Keiichi's playbook! We wanna get to Kazuki-san's family res in one piece." In reality, Etou was steadying a dizzily asthmatic Megumi with one wiry hand and leading traffic ignorant Shimizu by the other on his arm, Fuyuumi shockingly the quick teen's only stable ally, bringing up the rear of their little Seiso party.

Shouji smiles, feeling yet another tiny ice crystal, that had been embedded into her wounded heart for these two plus years, begin to melt in the heat of Etou's hand's warm palm on her arm as they walk along, side by side...


	3. Chapter 3 - Service With a Smile

**Chapter 3: "Service With a Smile"**

"Rats!" The crack ace reporter on the scene grumbles at the lost photo-shoot opportunity. Tsuchiura and Hino quickly separate the comforting embrace after hearing Etou's warning cry to Shimizu, with the ensuing chaos of the gathering crowd saving the oblivious boy in a different way.

"LUNCH SPECIALS! BUFFET STILL OPEN FOR HALF HOUR! HURRY AND COME TO DINE IN THE COZY ATMOSPHERE OF THE HIHARA FAMILY RESTAURANT!"

It was a funny thing to hear coming from the mouth of the slight little lithe figure of a girl, her plummy purple curls bouncing on the winds, as she yells the call as loud as her lungs could withstand—which was surprisingly loud indeed, for such a tiny thing. Even more surprising was the lineage of this noisy town crier, as she spouts the lunch buffet sales pitch for the small family restaurant she was standing in front of.

Yunoki Miyabi, her hair askew, flour dusting her flushed cheeks and hands and any part of clothing the cute little apron she was donning did not cover, was a very good saleswoman when it came down to it. The sheltered little rich girl never would have imagined doing anything so bold or exciting as this. She'd never have thought just a year or two ago, that she'd be where she was—that she and her brother's betrothed, Takashina Ayano, expert of the ancient Japanese tea ceremony, would be running their very own tea shoppe café called "Casual Kaiseki."

She never thought just a year or two ago that she would be attending Seiso Academy either, thanks to her older brothers running interference with their aging grandmother. Never did Miyabi think she'd feel so useful to anyone, getting her callous-less hands dirty—playing hostess, waitress, side-order cook, and dishwasher when  
necessary for the Hihara restaurant—just conveniently located next door to her tea shoppe. (Yunoki Azuma sure knew how to pull some strings.)

So every day, Miyabi would leave the tea ceremony part to Ayano, and walk across from "Casual Kaiseki" to transform from rich prim hostess of her own dainty tea and dessert shop, into a busy middle-class working tables woman.

And there was nothing more that could make an eager lively girl, such as Miyabi, happier. The first independence and that sense of worth that had heretofore been nonexistent in her sheltered life, ruled under the tight thumb of her grandmother, never would have been known. But thanks to Azuma's lead, all her brothers had rallied against Grandmother in favor of Miyabi's idea to let her be allowed to live in a new world of possibilities, eat of the forbidden fruit denied them that Miyabi was now enjoying at the tender age of sweet sixteen.

She blossomed into quite a beauty. In the rosiness of her cheeks, there was a healthy glow that the once pale girl had, especially when she was working alongside her big brother's best friend, the bright  
sparkling Hihara Kazuki, who still gave her goose pimples when she thought about him. She adored Hihara-san and wore that feeling on her sleeve, but he didn't ever seem to know.

"Come on in, gang! Mom's made her famous homemade apple pie! A piece for everyone after the meal!" The man in question himself, sticks his head out the front entrance door behind her.

Hihara's warm smile and warmer hands over Miyabi shoulders, like she was his little sister, could usually brighten up any gray day. But a trained eye could see the wear and tear on his body. Between working here at the restaurant, part-time at the music store on weekends, and doing odd jobs at the local mechanic's shop/gas station by night to make ends meet, all made Hihara Kazuki quite an exhausted workaholic. But Seiso College's attendance was a costly affair that his working class parents couldn't fully afford to send him to.

But if anyone had the energy to succeed, it was Hihara Kazuki. He would **not** give up his dream of pursuing music. If he had to burn his candle at both ends to do it, he would burn them both brightly!

_And little Miyabi-chan sure was a big help!_

He was grateful for her selfless pitching in at the restaurant when he was late or had to stay at the Academy for practice or special alumni meaning. Hihara would rush from one class, one job, one task to the next with as much vigor as he could muster. But some days he was sure glad Miyabi-chan was there to help his Mom at the restaurant when he was too tuckered out from a long day running around at school and part-time work. She had become like a daughter to the Hiharas. The sunshiny girl was eager to please, even learning to cook (a skill rich girls didn't seem to even modestly own.) and wait tables and do general jobs Kazuki would have to do had she not been there.

"Good job, Miyabi-chan! Here's some more of Mom's famous all-you-can-eat shish-ka-bobs, right off the grill! Keep'em happy! There's my girl!"

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed despite his fatigue, Hihara Kazuki unknowingly sets the plummy girl's heart a-racing as he whispers the encouragement in her curls, after racing from the kitchen at wicked lightning speeds to deliver a pair of the tasty restaurant special sticks chock full of braised beef chunks, green peppers and tasty wieners to Miyabi's already in motion waiting tray over her head.

Hihara was still so blind to her total adoration as he ushers the friends gathered in on his way without so much as a pause. Miyabi sadly  
notices how he stops to greet Hino Kahoko especially warmly.

"...Hihara-senpai! It's so good to see you." The redhead always felt welcome in Hihara's shining eyes and generous smile. A dose of 'Happy Hihara' was just the ticket for Kahoko on this emotional  
evening's roller coaster.

"As long as you're not running down the street, that is." She takes a smiling deep breath to bolster herself with the friendly jab at their mishap in the street earlier.

"Running? Eh?" Drawing a total blank at Hino's teasing words, Hihara Kazuki was as sieve headed as he was sweet nowadays in his mad dash from here to there and back again to put a few bucks away for his expensive music college education.

"You know—pumping your legs up and down so they can get you someplace fast." Etou's mouth and wiggling fingers sarcastically fills in those blanks for his older, yet not wiser, Seiso OB senpai from where he was programming the restaurant's old-fashioned jukebox in the corner and shaking his hips rather rhythmically once a dance mix is selected.

"—without bulldozing innocent bystanders in your wake. Hey. This isn't a discotheque, kid." Tsuchiura Ryotaro, intending to call careless Hihara out on crashing into girls in his way on the road, takes out his frustrations on his former kouhai whose flashy dance moves were being closely observed by every female in the family restaurant—and even one or two just gawking secretly in through the front window.

"Oh. A discotheque is a place filled with nonstop, constant flow of music. Sometimes my dreams are like that, with all the angels singing and fairies humming simultaneously. Maybe I'll see them at the discotheque, too. They'd fit right in with all the flashing lights and colored balls spinning I saw on TV." Shimizu seems to zone out dizzily at the thought of faceted silver and gold disco lamps twirling over his head.

"Where is one we can go to? I can do a slow dance very well." Shimizu Keiichi wakes up from his menu entrancement to honestly say, while Fuyuumi Shoko giggles as Shouji Megumi tears her eyes away from Etou Kiriya's swaying movements at the jukebox he was idly playing with to join in her nervous laughter.

"I'm sure you can, Shimizu-kun! I bet we'd all have a blast at one! Let's plan to go one of these weekends, gang! I'll be a regular Sherlock Holmes until I stake one out! And you can help out and be my Watson, Hino-chan! The game is afoot! Oww, that's mine. Heh heh heh." Stubbing his toe in his rush, irrepressible Hihara picks up his dimmed vision mother's magnifying glass from the register counter, and holds it up to his eye as he winks at Hino, who imagines him as a real Sherlock Holmes. He sensed that she needed an extra helping of the buoyant Hihara charm tonight as he scans the phone book with it for the names of disco joints in town.

Kahoko's tears were long gone by now, for envisioning Hihara as the legendary master sleuth was able to encourage her bright smiles for him to enjoy with jolly laughter in return, along with friends and  
patrons gathered around his comforting family restaurant in uproarious approval of his funny antics.

Unnoticed in the back corner by all, as Hihara Holmes takes a giggling Hino Watson for a quick spin across the imaginary dance floor, Miyabi sighs, her spirits sinking as they often did at the thought that she was no competition for the older girl. She would never be anything more to Kazuki than his best friend's little sister.

_Sigh ..I wish I could play the violin as well. Then maybe Hihara-senpai would notice me, too. But I'd never be as good as Hino-senpai. He thinks I'm too young...Because I am..._

"I saw that. Miyabi-chan? Are you okay?" Amou's kindest inquiring eyes ask, as she drags a reluctant Sakimoto Mizue in the rear with her into the doorway, despite the girl's protest as last into the Hihara  
restaurant.

"Amou-san, I'll be fine. Thank you. Just flour dust in my eyes from baking before." Miyabi blinks back tears, pretending it was flour she was wiping from her face and not bitter tears, as she returns to the  
kitchen forlornly.


	4. Chapter 4 - A Kind Ear

**Chapter 4: ****"A Kind Ear"**

"Hey! We need a little service over here! Keep the shishes coming this way, Purple Pata-chan! I'm starving tonight!"

Without notice, a crass voice interrupts Miyabi's emotional moment from the back booth in the restaurant, waving his arms about wildly as he uses her personalized version of his demeaning nickname for all cute little girls that literally translated into 'a small creature that pitter-patters'.

Nonetheless, there was something genuinely likeable about the big blue teddy bear of the completely vocally honest elder Seiso senpai that was undeniable.

The girl smiles, despite herself, for her favorite frequent patron/ fellow waiting-table experienced mentor always was ready with a friendly tease or helpful tip. Not the monetary type, though Fudou Shoma appreciated the elbow grease that went with busing tables.

Fudou Shoma, Hino Kahoko's former neighbor and kindergarten friend, was many things: a passionate, headstrong to the point of obsession with his rock band, guitarist, a fun loving blustery blowhard tease, a determined, fight for what he believes in stand-up kind of guy—but a young, just starting out in life entrepreneur endowed with an ample supply of cash, he was not. Not wanting to mooch off his parents once he had the wherewithal to work with his own two hands and stand on his own two feet, Shoma was a hardworking young man much like her Kazuki-san. Sheltered, well provided for Yunoki Miyabi admired them both for it.

"**_'Please_,'** Shoma. The key word whenever speaking to a refined young lady is _'please'. _If you please, little brother." Fudou Yosuke even had a winning way of admonishing his younger sibling as he, Kobayashi Nao, and Takatou Mio rejoin their cozy little back table nook from where Shoma was left alone to his own devices to make such a ruckus.

Now THERE was somebody who always had the right words, in whatever language he chose to use.

Fudou-senpai's dreamy older brother AKA Miyabi's English, French, Art, and Math teacher **was **as contrasting to his loudmouthed opinionated sibling as any could be! Quiet and unassuming, adult rather than kiddish, Fudou _Yosuke_ was indeed a charmer.

And **he** for one knew how to treat someone from the feminine perspective with respect and utmost gentility.

Maybe that in and of itself was the reason independent, jaded to the recently growing immature male generation, Kobayashi Nao found herself keeping company with the older man, despite his flirtatious nature.

Yes, the bristles on the back of her neck stood up the first time the 22-year-old teacher in training called her rather forwardly 'Nao-chan' before they were acquainted enough to be on a first name basis. But given that his family had moved to Switzerland when he and Shoma were just small children, his Western European overseas education, understandably, regularly addressed each other with that familiarly as a rule that was not embraced as yet in super respectful Japanese culture. So she wouldn't hold that little informality against him. On the contrary, Nao found her new, multi-subject wielding teacher with the mellow voice and soft droopy eyes rather interesting, on second thought.

What was even more interesting, though, was the fact that he took special interest in _her _from almost as soon as he was assigned by the Director of the Academy to take on the task of live-in Dorm Master at the Seiso college he'd just graduated head of his 3rd year class of in. At the newly renovated Linden Hall, Fudou-sensei always was ready and eager on hand to discuss various scholastic queries (albeit mostly to swooning girls chasing after their stylish Dorm Master's wake) or helpfully smooth out many young students overtaxed minds with handmade French inspired cuisine on Study Group late nights he organized in the college dorm kitchen.

And when Nao and Mio decided to both stay on to go to Seiso College, living in the now pleasant Linden Hall dorm seemed perfectly logical.

As did, from his secret admirer point of view, the showering attention she soon received from Fudou Yosuke.

Nao wasn't aware of how much of his own time the teacher was spending on her particularly until the rumor mill of '_Teacher's Pet_' reared its ugly and unwelcome head when the older man began openly calling her the affectionate pet name sobriquet _'my dear'_.

She tried in her last term at the college to keep her distance from him, but the close relationship they had already forged in far too many hours their heads were bent pouring over history books together enjoying serious study of Nao's chosen subject field, couldn't be denied for much longer. Not to mention lil' bro Shoma and BFF Mio's ingenious double dating ideas.

After a while though, Nao found herself enjoying Yosuke's amorous yet intelligent banter and affectionate attention as he imparted his knowledge and his heart both to her willingly, more than she cared to admit.

And now that she had her diploma, the teacher-student problem had just as quickly been erased from the blackboard, Nao was preparing herself for the next course in their developing relationship to come to the test.

* * *

She smiles over the table at Yosuke tentatively, agreeing wholeheartedly with the man for rebuking his ill-mannered baby brother's rudeness to Miyabi.

"Can't we leave you alone for a minute? We only stepped across the street to visit Ayano-san to see her latest artwork at Casual Kaiseki. You are such a child when left unsupervised, Shoma." Nao had a tongue a might bit sharper for berating than her soft spoken escort, especially when it came to chiding his annoying little bro.

Mio giggles at the sour face Shoma makes in her best friend's scornful direction.

"O~kay, then, Miss Hoity-Toity _Pota-chan_." Murmuring under his breath the mocking nickname with a totally dripping wet towel other meaning for his despised nemesis, the 21-year-old was proving the dark serious young woman more correct in her assessment of his maturity by the second.

"Mayest we art thou havest some moreth shish-kabobest, oh honored madam?" But by the time Shoma finished his faked overly accented Ye-Ole-English ridicule, shaking the selfsame shish around in the air like a jousting lance whilst he spoke, he could scarcely contain his own busting out in a full blown laughter right in Nao's steaming angry face.

Mio seemed to be the only one present to see the humor in the situation enough to quickly succumb to Sho-chan's contagious torrent of unstoppable chortling laughs as well

"Don't encourage the noisy lout, Mio! You're just as bad as he is!" Nao was mortified at the scene the giddy pair was causing in the  
family restaurant to say the least. She shoots Yosuke a raised eyebrow look for assistance.

"Ah- yes." He nods and smiles to her command obediently, displaying the true gentleman he, at least, was.

"Really, Shoma! You are quite incorrigible!" He delivers the chide as believably as he could to his little brother's snortling face.

"Miyabi-chan, please do forgive his behavior, I don't know what's gotten into him." Embarrassed, Yosuke apologizes to the wide-eyed waitress as Shoma takes one glance at the incredulous look stick-in-the-mud 'Pota-chan' Nao was aiming in his direction and breaks out laughing anew, slapping his lap and then the shuttering tabletop in response.

"I believe we should be taking them home before either hurt themselves in their spontaneous frivolity." The teacher heartily begs pardon for his uncivilized brother's actions

"Again I apologize." Yosuke stands, to leave the poor family restaurant in peace, lifting Shoma by the scruff of his neck and under his armpits as Nao takes her responsible cue to help a still uncontrollably giggling Mio from her chair. The tiny girl did not even know why she was laughing anymore, owing that her Sho-chan had them both nearly rolling on the floor in sidesplitting jollity because he was 'too funny!'.

"Must be because of the full moon tonight." Miyabi tries to empathize as she tabulates the shortened dinner's totals.

"Oh!" Miyabi dashes away wildly as she hands Fudou-sensei the bill, Yosuke exchanging a perplexed look with Nao as she shrugs her shoulders a Miyabi's odd flight.

"There may be some truth to that full moon business tonight, as unscientific as it sounds." Remarking to himself in the restaurant's front lobby, Yosuke shakes his head with a very small chuckle as he counts out the payment, plus a deserving large tip, for their enjoyable evening's repast and for putting up with the irascible pair. He had, with some physical struggle that Nao dutifully aided him with, deposited Shoma and Mio, both yet dually a-chuckling, outside the doorway in hope that some cool night fresh air would sober them up, though neither imbibed anything more than one another's intoxicating company tonight.

"I've wrapped up a bunch more of the shish-kabobs for Shoma-senpai since I didn't get the chance to bring him his last order he wanted. I threw in some more, too, for the rest of you guys to nibble on later if you get hungry. And the brownies I made with Mother Hihara for dessert I wrapped up extra-specially." Miyabi first hands Yosuke the brown paper doggie bag with a container generously overfilled with those famed 'shishes' and then she gives him a cute little gift-like satchel holding four homemade fudge brownies for their to-go dessert.

Yosuke's eyes gaze upon the adorable be-ribboned and trimmed fancy bag and realizes that Miyabi had made it up especially for her friends, despite all the personal annoyance and silly trouble the party had proved to her this visit.

He smiles, accepting the sentimental baggie in one hand as he leans the other elbow on the register counter, positioning an admiring hand under his chin to look upon her with revered respect.

"You are a Queen among women, Miss Yunoki. _Adieu_." Yosuke kisses his lips warmly to the young girl's extended backhand as he bids her good evening and turns to leave the establishment.

"Wow. I wish Kazuki-san could hear you say that." Miyabi murmurs pointedly under her breath at being called a 'woman' not a 'girl' as she waves farewell to the never dull Fudous outside the window where Shoma sustains a loud clap on the back from his big bro to at last curb his remnant chortling at the inane joke in the public street before Yosuke has to knock him to it.

As if the rather tame jolt reawakened his common senses, Shoma suddenly pauses, straightens up his shoulders, and subsequently pulls out a pair of shades and dons them coolly, as if nothing amiss or silly happened whatsoever. Mio smiles adoringly up at him in his black leather jacket and dark sunglasses as if he were a rock star.

_Hey, I am one! Well...I'm gonna make my mark on the music scene someday!_

"Miyabi-chan was right. There is a full moon." Yosuke comments in amusement after a soft scoff at his indomitably spirited sibling striding full steam ahead with Mio pattering behind to Yosuke's waiting vehicle.

Gazing upwards to the similarly uninhibited luminary in the sky, the elder Fudou brother slips an arm around his Nao's shoulders, mildly noting how they stiffen under his touch.

* * *

"Will you be having our All you Can Eat Special today, too, Miss Amou?" Whatever Miyabi's distress of before was, it was all but abated by her friends' funny adventures. Back in full waitress action, she whips out her little notepad for orders like a seasoned professional, along with a pleasant smile.

"Hmm?" Too lost in her own plans to notice the departing Fudou party, Amou gazes from one familiar face to the next as Tsuchiura helps Hihara pull some long tables together when they see the expanded gang gathering. After Shimizu, Etou, Shouji and Fuyuumi arrived, it continued to grow, as Kaji Aoi and his accompanist Mori Manami soon come in, in search of their missing companion. Hino Kahoko had forgotten their appointment for practice she had with the two and they were anxious.

"Hino-san! You missed practice! We were so worried! Your cell's been on busy for an hour! Are you all right?! I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you!" Ever the politician, eternally effervescent Kaji Aoi comes bursting in with his usual slobbering. He hugs Hino's uncomfortable body with finesse.

"Oh! Kaji-kun! Mori-san! I'm so sorry! Our practice meet after school today totally slipped my mind! My friends, forgive me?" Softly pushing Kaji back, Hino reaches and squeezes Mori's hand in both of hers.

"Of course." Mori Manami looks down and smiles in her knowing way, giving a retreating Kaji a raised brow look and smirk.

"We enjoyed our time together immensely. Just the two of us was rather cozy, wasn't it Kaji-kun? Or something like that."

Mori Manami was not at all shy to speak to boys like most of the other girls were. She had grown up with far too many brothers, both big and little, to ever be intimidated by one, even a looker like Kaji Aoi. Mori felt perfectly at ease playing as his accompanist after school in Ferris College's music rooms. She was glad Meiji was so close by and affiliated that she wasn't alone in caring for Hino-san.

She and Kaji saw each other often, he always going out of his way to meet the pair of girls for lunch. The three former Seiso students were a close knit group and would walk home together, or Kaji would take them home in his new sporty car for rides after school.

_Maybe I could fall for a guy like him, _Mori would often muse to herself as she and Hino would attend a soccer or volleyball game that the handsome golden haired lad was star player of. At first, Mori considered Kaji-kun more as one of Hino's friends. But with Hino in this continual funk lately, Mori was a much more sympathetic ear, a good listener to whatever the confused young man wished to talk about. Kaji had even opened up to Mori about his indecisive career choices.

"Do I become a doctor, like my grandfather?" or "Do I go into politics, like my father?"

He was bouncing between both in college courses at Meiji, but knew that soon he would have to make up his mind. He imagined it would be his idol, Hino Kahoko, who would advise it, give him insight on his life's answers. But even though he made it a point to be by Hino nearly every school day, it was Mori he saw more of. She and Kaji  
together had promised the others to watch out for the heart-sunk girl. This concern for her brought them together. They were her only connection—these two old friends here in this new music college.

The two golden heads were often to be found conferencing together over lunches and practice sheets, plotting how next to lift their wayward friend's spirits. They themselves did not realize how closely they were being knit together by their mutual concern for Hino, into something more to each other, too...

* * *

"Oh, um, yes...we did. I enjoy your company a lot, Mori-san! Every moment of it is precious to me! We have so much to share with one another." Naturally soppy worded and starry eyed Kaji Aoi appreciated Mori's friendly honesty, though neither realized how naughty the words sounded to the unknowing public. Laughing  
congenially as he and Mori share a conspiratorial chuckle, Kaji's eyes reach into those of the smiling and nodding girl he was gentlemanly seating at their friend's table. He offers her the restaurant menu and even that they pore over in a frisky hand-in-glove tandem.

"Chill, you two. This is a family restaurant, you know." Tsuchiura says over the salad bowl, smirking as he makes the swipe.

Mori chuckles with the rest of the gang as Kaji's face turns red as a beet in it when he realizes what Tsuchiura was getting at.

"Tsuchiura!" He bursts out in shock. Everyone giggles at how dense the politician's son could be sometimes as laughter fills the restaurant.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Best Laid Plans

**Chapter 5: "The Best Laid Plans"**

_Ding, dong_

"A calm night was starting to fall on the busy town of Kanagawa, but Takashina Ayano was uneasy. Opening the door of the Hihara restaurant a sliver to peek in, she was opting rather to stay outside in the chilling air than go into the restaurant. Ayano was never comfortable in crowds. Her strict upbringing, her severe parents and schooling, even now at the current all girls Kokugakuin University, had left the lonely quiet girl more of an oddity than ever. It was in her way of dressing, her old-fashioned styled speech pattern, the very timid subservience that kept the 17-year-old beauty's eyes continually respectfully down. Her soft voice was rarely, if ever, heard, making her seem like a porcelain doll or a geisha girl out of a historical storybook rather than a modern young woman of the 21st century.

She played the part of the modest maiden, patiently awaiting her betrothed master's return so well indeed, that no one barely noticed her presence. Ayano's only hobby, her only purpose in life was to serve Azuma-sama, and whatever he wished her to do. She would be whoever he wished her to be, even while he was not here, even while he was abroad studying at Princeton University in America so far away. And rarely did Azuma-sama ever tell Ayano what he wished of her at all.

_I will wait for you forever, Azuma-sama. I will prepare to make myself pure enough to befit to serve you as a good wife when you return...when the cherry blossoms bloom again...I will be waiting to be your humble bride..._

She had no other thought, but for that day. Azuma-sama's every desire, every order was her command, to the point of obsession.

So all that need be done was for his little sister Miyabi to tell Ayano of her scheme, her idea for the 'Casual Kaiseki Tea Shoppe' and that Azuma-sama had suggested that she, ever loyal Ayano, could help Miyabi run it with her expert knowledge of the traditional tea ceremony and vast collection of authentic decor and tea service skills.

Just say the word, Yunoki Azuma, and Ayano would wordlessly oblige. If Yunoki knew he wielded such power over a beautiful young creature's heart and soul, why did he not rush back to marry her? Many another ordinary male would jump at the chance to have rule over such a rare beauty of an absolutely subservient offer of a wife. But Yunoki Azuma was light years beyond ordinary.

Ayano continues to pause in the doorway, unsure what to do when she sees the boisterous crowd a-chattering away. Should she turn and go back to Kaiseki and patiently wait for Miyabi to return to close up? She had a key herself to do just that on every other normal night, while Miyabi was at the restaurant. But this night with special—it was Thursday night.

It was the night Ayano lived the rest of the week for. It was the night that Azuma-sama would send an e-mail to his little sister. And maybe—just maybe—every now and then (_oh please be tonight!)_ Yunoki would write a word or two in Ayano's direction. She only needed a sentence, a phrase mentioning her in his thoughts, and she would be the happiest girl alive. She would hang on the chance of his every word such as: "_Tell Ayano to help you_." or an off-handed: "_Say hello to Ayano for me_."

The very thought of her dark, debonair and dashing prince sent shivers up and down Ayano's spine.

Just these simple obligatory phrases would send her world soaring. Ayano prayed that each message would be the one that said he was on his way home, that he was on his way back to Japan—back to stay  
and marry her. Even if he didn't think of her much along his journey; even if he made many girlfriends abroad; even if he didn't love her, she would marry him. Yunoki Azuma was Ayano's obsession, her  
adored royal Prince since the time of their youth. She had nothing else in life to live for but her preparation to marry him.

And tonight was Thursday night, but Ayano must wait for Miyabi to receive the e-mail, or perhaps, _oh glorious perhaps!_ a video message or actual phone call!

_Yes, I believe it would be preferable to wait at tea shoppe, _Ayano was about to turn on her geta heel and retreat a silent escape when a friendly voice raises over the dinner din.

"Ayano-chan! Come have dinner with us! There's still a lot of Mom's warm and tasty apple pie! Don't just stand lurking there in the doorway!" Hihara Kazuki was sweet and kind and well-intentioned, but the phrase 'Bull in a China Shop' certainly came to mind when it came to him and speaking to girls.

The frightened deer in the headlights look that an embarrassed Ayano gave the group was enough for Miyabi to want to slap the green haired young man for his disregard for Ayano's sensitive nature. So she does just that, giving Kazuki's chest a punishing pound. Hihara's bellowing certainly didn't do any good to the shy creature. Miyabi jumps up to greet her delicate partner when she realizes that she too, had neglected poor Ayano from her one joy in life.

"Ayano!" Miyabi didn't even have time to get to the door before Ayano does a 180° and sprints back out into the night, like a young gazelle in full Japanese kimono dress.

"I'll be back, Mother Hihara! But 'Goodnight' everyone, if I miss you!" Calling out to the older woman in the kitchen, Miyabi dashes out to comfort her frightened friend, leaving the gang quite silent for all of ten seconds.

"I have to be going, too. I have a lot of practice waiting for me at home. Good night." Hino quietly makes her exit, putting her share of payment on the front counter desk for Mrs. Hihara to collect.

"Not you, too, Hino-chan! You're no fun anymore!" Foot in mouth strikes again, but the night was still young. The sad look coming over her face as she finishes paying and leaves with a faraway melancholy back at Hihara was enough to prove that.

"Wait! I'll walk you home, Hino-san!" Kaji jumps up and rushes to his idol's side."See you tomorrow, Mori-san!" And he's gone as well.

Once they're out of earshot—_BOP_! Tsuchiura whacks Hihara the back of his thick head hard.

"Ouch! Tsuchiura! What did I do?!" Oblivious yet, again, Hihara rubs the back of his aching head.

"If you don't know by now..." Amou rolls her eyes at him, she also leaving the table and exiting the restaurant with a huffy _hmph_! at the entire callous male race.

"You said it." After another unceremonious pause, Mizue stands and joins her in the female walkout. An already slightly slighted Mori, due to Kaji's abandonment, links arm in arm with a quietly agreeing Shouji and follows Amou's lead. She pops a startled Fuyuumi on the shoulder with a twisted '_You too_' look mid stride.

With Mizue holding the door open for her, Fuyuumi is torn between fear of angering the boys and fear of not fitting in with the girls. Her eyes slide back and forth between the two opposing groups at the door and those who were still seated.

Terrified and almost in tears, Fuyuumi's decision is made for her. Thankfully, she is relieved beyond gratitude for her pale knight in shining armor. Happily finishing off Fuyuumi's piece of apple pie as well, Shimizu slowly gets up from the table. He places more than enough monetary bills to cover both his and Fuyuumi's and even some of the other girls meals on the tablecloth in front of his empty plate. Parting with his funds was a feat for the frugal young lad, so he must have really enjoyed the pie.

"Please thank Mother Hihara for me, Hihara-senpai. The meal was delicious, especially the apple pie. I think it was the best pie I ever ate. I think I might try it again next time." And with that and a calm smile, the unperturbed angel is up and escorting Fuyuumi from her seat. They go out the door that Mizue was still holding open, behind the other girls. They give him a grateful, welcoming smile as Mori slams the door with a final flourish.

"Way to go, Kazuki-san. You've got some way with the ladies." Etou says with a smirk, shaking his head. He never did claim to understand _all_ the mysteries of the female psyche himself, but he certainly knew when a fellow fellow had stepped in it—and not just once, but three times in a row.

The abandoned guys left staring at the vacant doorway seemed to lose their appetites in the pallid atmosphere, also soon thereafter deserting the now unhappy meeting spot.

After all, what good was a dinner date without your girl around to impress?

Some of these fellas still had a lot to learn about maintaining the respect of the feminine heart.

* * *

"Ayano-san?" Miyabi enters the darkened cafe, seeing nothing, but hearing enough. Ayano was quietly weeping in the far corner of the scenic shoppe, beneath the sakura blossom painting that she loved to stare at. Azuma-sama had sent it to her all the way from America when the shoppe first opened.

"Ayano-san? Hihara-san didn't mean to frighten you." Miyabi says, comfortingly putting an arm around her friend.

"It—it was not that. If you please, I do hope he can pardon my inadequacies." Ayano says in her overly polite manner, as she subconsciously fingers the painting adorning the wall as she spoke. But Miyabi saw the simple act and suddenly remembered, in her ditzy way, what could always cheer her quiet companion up—a Thursday night message from America!

"Oops! Look! I almost forgot! Our Thursday night email from Big Brother! Here it is!" Miyabi produces her trusty cell phone and Yunoki's weekly message arrives for Ayano's hungry eyes to drink in. "And since I almost forgot it, you can read it first tonight!" Miyabi generously places the device in Ayano's un-technological hand. In the eerie darkness, the bright words on the screen are read and reread until her blurry eyes were back in tears, full force.

"Ayano! What is it?" Worried now, Miyabi quickly asks with a concerned frown, peering over Ayano's shoulder at what could bring the girl to tears again.

_'Greetings. Dull prospects. Can't decide where to go after graduation. There's nothing adventurous enough here in America to entice me. But nothing there at home exciting enough to bring me back, either. Do you think there's a shuttle launch to Mars I could book a flight on? Even that sounds dull and boring to me about now. Tell Grandmother and our older brothers that business school is as expected—even here. Dull. My grades are exemplary, I'm at the top of my class and expected to graduate with honors. Dull. Tell them I'm making them proud. Dull. Maybe I can try out tiger hunting in Africa. Perhaps I'll send you a trophy or two. Ask Hihara if he'd like to join me, Miyabi. I'll write you from somewhere dull when I get there soon. Oh, and something has come up in Austria I must attend to. So I won't be coming home for the holidays after all. Goodbye.'_

"There is nothing as exciting as that here..." Ayano whispers forlornly.

"I guess tiger hunting sounds like fun." Miyabi tries to lighten the mood with a giggle at her brother's strange message. She knew how this news of not coming home must hurt poor Ayano even worse than her. The girl was in a daze once she'd read the part about Yunoki not coming home for the holidays at all.

"There is _nothing _as exciting as that here." Ayano repeats herself in a daze. So much so, that she didn't even notice uninvited visitors.

"Tiger hunting, eh? I think the male species on the whole would make better game!" Amou says, with hands on hips. She had had just about enough of the creatures as she leads her troupe of angered females, plus Shimizu, into the small cafe, as Miyabi comforts Ayano, bringing her to a back room for a sit-down.

"Present company excepted." Mori gives the blonde boy a passing pat on the head. The girls treated him more like a beloved pet than one of those loathsome of the race tonight called 'men.'

"Poor Ayano-chan. She misses him so." Fuyuumi sympathetically feels for the girl after they all had overheard that Yunoki was not returning for the upcoming holidays to spend with her here.

"Poor Hino-san, too!" Knowing how another friend was aching for her own love's return, Shouji felt Hino's pain acutely. Although somehow, recently her own ocean of feelings for Tsukimori Len was slowly ebbing like the tide, now that Etou Kiriya was in her life. She still could understand the redhead's sadness, though. She had suffered it herself for years, and the ice-blue stallion didn't even know that she existed. At least Hino had more of her boyfriend's caring to cling to than Ayano seemed to possess.

"It's because Tsukimori Len has always been socially inept and Yunoki Azuma is still a cold fish." Mori Manami calmly assesses, forgiving the inadequate Len more than Aoi-san's cruel cousin who was so diametrically opposed to the golden youth's perhaps all too willing friendliness. She pitied the girls nonetheless, seeing the same look in both their eyes after Hihara-senpai's unintentional remarks.

"And Miyabi-chan didn't look none too happy tonight with her clumsy worded guy, either! Hmph! Men! Or something like that." Mori ends her bitter remarks with her usual catch phrase added to lighten the mood a bit, but to no avail, the collected depression building in the darkness with many a sigh. She wraps a comforting arm around waif-like Shouji Megumi who seemed to start trembling and struggling for breath simultaneously at the sad state of affairs suddenly.

"'_Yes, they pine away for their loves, they do, until sadness rends their souls in two_.'" Mizue quotes in eerie well delivered drama.

"I read that in a poem once." Cocking her head, she half-apologizes for her bit of melodramatic fluff. Mizue remembered how her lummox Ryo had callously laughed at her for her flights of 'fancy words' when she tried to quote a romantic poem of Lord Byron's to him one Valentine's Day.

"I know you've all been doing your best to keep those girls' spirits up. Mori, both you and Miyabi-chan have been true friends to each of them." Amou shakes her head. "But life isn't a poem! It's  
heartbreaking to see their 'souls' being torn apart as you say, Mizue." Amou garners the girls' nods.

"But I suppose it happens to boys, too." Amou begrudgingly admits after steaming for a moment. "Shinobunny—I mean, Ousaki-senpai—" Amou corrects with a guilty smile her over-familiar address for the older man, "—he's just as beside himself with worry for the sad state that Tsukimori-kun is constantly in, pining away for Hino-san, if you can believe that of that cold guy. Ousaki-senpai thinks we've got to get them together again soon, '_before one or the other dies of a broken heart_.' I laughed at the e-mail message then, but I guess I can see what he means now." Amou could hear Ayano's sobs from where they were whispering in the front of the store.

And she could just imagine what Hino Kahoko was going through—and all on her own, keeping her tears bottled up inside. Hino never complained or begged the boy to return, stubborn as she was.

_"_Just like Tsukimori-kun._.._They're just both too bull-headed and stubborn to admit to each other how lonely they are! Ousaki-senpai tells me that Tsukimori-kun never tells how he misses her so in his phone calls with her. And the emails that he receives from Hino-chan never tell him to come home to her, either! They both want the same thing but seem to speak another language when they talk to each other!" Amou throws her hands up in frustration. The girls all exchange nods with each other in agreement.

"They'll understand...each other if...Hino-senpai and Tsukimori-senpai...just have to...play their...violins to one another...again...Because, music...is the true language...of love..." From out of nowhere, hidden in the darkness, a silent Shimizu Keiichi speaks. A brilliant stream of moonlight breaks through the clouds to shine upon him at this moment, through the darkened window.

Fuyuumi was beside him, awed by his pure beauty and genius. They all turn, almost seeing a halo glowing over his head as the simple answer comes from his melodic lips as he raises a pretty heart shaped trinket box that was laying on Casual Kaiseki's gift center counter, to caress his cheek significantly.

His gaze fixes upon Fuyuumi as he says the word 'love.' Fuyuumi was frozen still, not even able to blush under his angelic gaze.

"You mean—all we have to do is get Hino-san over to Vienna? But how?" Mori asks incredulously. Europe seemed so far away a dream she always held close to the vest herself, yet she was still filled with the glint of hope seen in the young blonde boy's unfailing eyes.

"Lili." One word. One answer. His eyes force themselves to leave her entrancement to spread groggily over his female audience. Fuyuumi's heart twitters at his honest, simply spoken solution.

Some of the others were confused by it, but one skeptical Amou Nami had, over the years, become a true believer that somehow fairies did exist at Seiso Academy. And Shimizu Keiichi could communicate with them too.

"Absolutely! Shimizu, you're brilliant! Fuyuumi!" Rushing across the room, Amou firmly grabs hold of both the idea and the blonde boy's shoulders as if lights suddenly zinged electricity into her head—bright dazzling ones of joy and hope.

"Tomorrow! You get that fairy of yours to bend Director Kira's ear. He's the only ticket to get us to Vienna! It's perfect! Hino-chan and Tsukimori-kun **will** play their language of love again! Woo-Oooh! What a romantic story this is going to be!"

Bells and whistles and knobs and wheels start churning and spinning in Amou's excited brain.


	6. Chapter 6 - Sprinkle the Fairy Dust

**Chapter 6: "Sprinkle the Fairy Dust"**

It seemed a normal Friday afternoon at the Seiso school grounds-quiet and peaceful since classes were out, and most students were eager to rush home for the weekend. Only a few, stouthearted serious musicians would come to practice in the rooms here and there.

He didn't mind that sort. They were the self-absorbed types who wouldn't want to bother him, either. It was the sort of day Kira Akihiko liked-no, the word should be 'preferred.' He was always ill at ease on the rest of normal busy weekdays when any said student might accidentally be bumped into, or give him a snide look or silly giggle as he walked the halls or grounds outside.

Children were strange creatures-he never did take to them, and teenagers were even worse as they aged.

_Unlike a fine wine such as this..._

Kira swirls the vintage port in his glass around with a lazy air. Friday was the one day of the week he could relax. Every other weekday was filled with school problems. On weekends, he generally ended up with disdain at a social event he'd attend merely for appearances' sake, and for as short a time as proprietous, and then slip away.

But Fridays were calm, laid back, forgotten days. And Kira liked to forget himself once in awhile and let the music sweep him away...

He loved his darkened office and comfortable couch to lie upon, for hours on end, just listening to the music he was so immersed in. The only problem with the classical pieces was that they would often remind him of Miya, his late sister.

_But that wasn't a problem anymore, was it?_ With the help of a certain girl and her friends, the stoic director had come to peace with his past-and more importantly, with himself.

His drifting mind wandered to thoughts of the child Miya had left behind, and Kira was as glad now, as he was uncertain then, that he had brought Kiriya back from America. The tall for his age, lanky boy was showing a lot of promise to be a great violinist someday. Maybe one of the best of his generation.

_Just like his mother...Have you heard him lately, Miya? You would be proud..._

Kira lets himself recall Kiriya's practice outside his window at home just yesterday. He played so well, as if inspired, now and then. It was the music of the 'Je Te Veux' that Miya loved to play most. Kira had told Etou once about his mother's fondness for it, and the boy had latched on-playing it almost just as she did. Kira was sure he could hear Miya's tone color in the wine hair colored lad's music.

_I suppose he's not too bad a kid after all._

Kira clears his thoughts with a sigh and lets the beautiful piece transport him...

"Hm hmm hm hmm hmmm, hmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmmmmmm..."

Someone was still humming the piece even after the CD ended. His eyes closed, Kira was certain that his peaceful afternoon was over now. Maybe it was just another fairy laced dream? But more likely, a 'Fata-filled' nightmare...

"Hm hmm hm hmm hmmm, hmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmmmmmm...We **love** Satie, don't we Kira Akihiko?!" Lili's high pitched voice finished his humming.

Kira turns over on the couch, trying to ignore the annoying creature entirely.

"Especially 'Je Te Veux'" Lili flutters over until he was right over Kira's ear. Kira, in turn, grabs a pillow and places it over his head. "That's no way to entertain an old friend, Kira Akihiko, you know! My feelings may get hurt, you know!" Lili whines, zapping the pillow with his wand until it was nothing but feathers, raining down over Kira's face.

The poor man shoots up, spitting feathers from his mouth with a choking cough. "We are not 'old friends,' Fairy!" Kira spouts in anger at last.

Lili was pleased and triumphant at getting his goat. "Now my feelings ARE HURT! And just when I was going to do you a favor, Kira Akihiko, you know!" Lili's voice was getting just as angry as his victim's.

"Don't. Don't do me any favors. Just get out. Leave me alone, Fata." Kira goes to the window and opens it, pointing an ordering finger out.

Lili smirks, giggling evilly. The window magically comes slamming down shut, as Kira agilely pulls his hand back in, just in time. He turns with a growl on his face, to find Lili had disappeared.

"Good." Kira was relieved for one hopeful moment. But the racket just outside his office door stops that thought immediately.

"Argento! Stop this!"

Furniture was flying to and fro around the sitting room's front entrance. Kira ducked in the nick of time, not to get decked by the stream of books circulating around the room. Busts of Beethoven and other composers, papers and sheet music, all joined in the whirlwind. Kira did all he could to not get whacked by a flying missile or pen shooting through the air.

But more than a pillow or two gets through, and knocks him down flat from behind.

"My name is '**Lili**!' LILI LILI LILI LILI! I won't stop until you say it, you know!" Lili giggles with threatening glee, floating above the melee below, as he seemed to enjoy watching Kira deftly dodge objects, like at a circus performer.

"No! I won't. It's foolish-to-address a-figment-of my-imagination!" Between dodges, Kira's doubtful soul since he was a small child, of magical fairies and legends, was going to be his downfall someday. Especially when it came to Lili the Fata.

_Pull!_

The Oriental rug was pulled right out from under him and he goes flying in the air. Kira almost went with it as he trips forward, forward, forward towards the closed door. He prepares for impact, unable to stop, when it suddenly opens.

Kira trips right out the door and into the sunlight, knocking the surprised woman, who had opened the door upon hearing suspicious noises inside, only to have them both knocked flat down the steps into the thankfully soft, grassy knoll below.

A dazed Kira blinks back the blinding sunlight and dizziness to find Tsuzuki Mari pinned beneath him. She was just shaking off the same dizzy, off-balance feelings when she comes to with a blush at their ultra close proximity.

"Mari...are you allr-are you hurt?" Kira finds his wind first. He lifts the speechless woman, air knocked right out of her, to her feet. But noticing how wobbly they were yet, he cavalierly decides to pick her up and carry her inside to the couch, laying her upon it.

"No more nonsense, Argento! I'm serious now. She could've been hurt!" Kira turns and talks to the empty air in anger. Mari's thumping heart and confused mind grew even more so as the dashingly dark Director of the school kneels down at the side of the sofa with a kindly expression of care she'd never seen on his usually emotionless features before.

"Are you hurt, Tsuzuki-kun?" His voice changes decidedly in temperature as he speaks to her. She smiles, despite the surprised fall, at his attentive attitude.

"No, I don't think-" Mari's reassuring reply stops dead in its tracks.

For there, floating in the air, right behind the Director's head was an apparition.

A small bluish being, in a skirt, with yellow curly hair, wings, a wand, and a devilish expression on its face, was there.

"Ohhh! I must've taken that fall harder than I thought." Mari tries to rationalize what her dazed eyes must be seeing. She shakes her head, then rubs her aching temples, closing her eyes tightly.

But Kira already had a suspicion of what was going on. He quickly swivels his head to see if-

_Poof!_

But Lili poofs away and Kira looks back to Mari, who opens her eyes, just in time to see Lili poofing back.

_Poof!_

This time, he waves his wand, doing a mid-air somersault, and then sticks his silent tongue out in a razz at her over Kira's head.

"Eek!" The usually calm and reserved Tsuzuki Mari shrieks. She grabs Kira's arm for support.

"You see it, don't you?" Kira resigns himself to an explanation now, knowing he could not fight the damn Fata. It had made itself obvious for a purpose, it seemed. "Of course you can. Your heart must truly love music." Kira mumbles under his breath in realization.

"Is it you...?" Mari whispers, going spacy in a remembrance her now cold heart convinced her was a lie to believe in, as Lili mischievously continues to pop in and out of sight.

"A Fata." Kira states, rolling his eyes. "More correctly-THE Fata. Lili, the one that my grandfather rescued from dying." Kira omits here to say how he wondered of his ancestor's wisdom in doing that.

"The one who granted him his dream to bless the school he was opening with music." Kira repeats, dronelike, his father and grandfather's passed down fairytale, from when he was a disbelieving kid, in his most monotone voice.

"...Music that would be spread around the world..." Mari finishes the legendary story in awe as she glances from Kira's face to the hovering, smiling figure of a fairy above him just as he was in her memory of the good times spent loving music at Seiso Academy in her youth, before her world became too jaded to see him anymore.

"Just like that, you know, Tsuzuki Mari! You DO remember me, you know! You're beginning to understand again, you know! So you can help Kira Akihiko from now on! I sense your souls are in tune with each other, you know! Together, you will both help spread music around the world, you know!" Lili was getting especially excited today, sensing the vibrations of music palpitating in the very air..

"Here! This is the bond you two will share for all time! My eternal gift to you, Kira Akihiko, Tsuzuki Mari!" Lili flutters over their hands, drawing one atop the other, and with an enchanted golden violin string, he wraps it around until it dissolves right into their skin, by fairy woven magic.

"What are you doing, Argento?!" Kira protests, reverting back to not using Lili's name, as he awkwardly tries to pull his hand away. But it was too late.

"You're too late, Kira Akihiko! Ha ha ha ha!" Lili dances around the room.

But as for Mari, she was in seventh heaven at the thought of being blessed by an actual musical Fata.

_At last! My music will be special, too!_

"Oh, Lili!" Ears pricking up at being addressed by _first_ name, the fairy stops in mid-flight to come before her.

"I used to believe you existed when I was a student at Seiso. I often imagined you were there, watching me play whatever instrument I picked up. Were you really there? Were you really watching, helping me?"

"Of course I was! That is-until your heart closed to me at the Concours and became too cold! I could see you still, but you could no longer see me, and I couldn't help you anymore!"

Mari recalls those dark times after the Concours-the jealousy she felt for the winner-one Ousaki Shinobu-and the cool perfection she then, after losing, demanded of herself in music. As a result, it was no longer the warm sparkle that it once brought to her world.

"I can see you now, Lili. I can truly see you again at last." Practiced, prim Tsuzuki Mari was almost in tears. She, unlike Kira, embraced the idea of someone to watch over her and bless her music. She softly strokes Lili's golden head and hugs the Fata to her chest-so grateful for this unexpected day.

"I'm happy, too, Tsuzuki Mari, you know! Maybe YOU could convince Kira Akihiko that I should grant him a great favor today, you know!" Wiping away his own tears of joy, Lili chuckles in glee, sticking his tongue out at Kira over Mari's shoulder. The man, still unconvinced, turns his head away from the stupid creature that Mari was embracing.

But Lili could see the soft spot inside Kira when he carried the woman into the room. It was something that Lili had never glimpsed in this stubborn great-grandson before, but it was sort of like the him of the good old days when he shared with someone a zest for life...

_Maybe another female in your life could teach you a thing or two about belief again, Kira Akihiko, you know..._

And now that he blessed the pair with his golden cord bond, Lili was sure there was no way even reluctant, stiff, meanie Kira Akihiko could deny the other half of his bond anything.

And the way Mari was looking at the music fairy, with new wonder and curiosity, Lili knew, that Tsuzuki Mari was going to be butter in his magical little hands...

Kira sits down and leans back on the other side of the imported European double-sided sofa from where Mari was cooing over Lili on the other side at his back with a resigned sigh.

With a triumphant smile, Lili zaps the CD player remote and 'Je Te Veux'' plays again. He was sure that between himself and Tsuzuki Mari, Kira Akihiko would soon be putty in their hands, too.


	7. Chapter 7 - Guilder For Your Thoughts

**Chapter 7: "Guilder for Your Thoughts"**

_A__ustria, Vienna Opera House_

"Vat are you thinking right now, my Dearest? Penny for your thoughts?" Spoken in broken English, the universal language that they both (somewhat) knew, the Dutch woman glances across her dressing room from where she was behind the screen at the lavender-haired man lounging on the settee, just blankly staring at the bare wall.

He had already changed from his opera costume and was quietly awaiting her, but as all men soon discovered, it took twice as long for a woman to disrobe into new attire than a man, especially this tall, European stately soprano with a keen eye for fashion. Kanazawa Hiroto, her leading man on stage and off, had almost forgotten that time-consuming little eccentricity of hers after all these years still the same. And yet he never once complained. Aloud.

You wouldn't think a normal woman would question such a noble, undemanding sentiment in her man. He patiently and wordlessly waited while she changed her attire without rushing her once after the last curtain call came down on the opera house that night. Caterina van Etten was not only widely famous for her soaring soprano voice in the opera world, but also for her lavish gowns and jewelry, and the time it took to undress and redress that made her constantly late for everything.

_Late for everything...Ze story of my life_.

Everything, including finding happiness with the love of her life. She was almost too late for that as well. It took Caterina ten years of lonely dressing rooms and empty flirtations from various  
gold-diggers, gigolos and fellow actors, for her to realize who the true co-star of her heart was—and what a mistake she made when she walked out on him that day.

_But I didn't lose him...even after I left him, like _een dwaas,_—a fool—when he needed me most. Like a selfish, spoiled girl, when I was offered a part in ze opera, I did not think of him—just of myself —and I was off again to Europe before even discussing it. To make my mark on ze world—become rich and famous, a celebrity toasted by all,  
beloved by all. And by all, I vas loved—but I had lost ze one whose love meant ze most to me... _

It took years for the Dutch beauty to realize the true desire of her heart.

_Never again vill I lose you again...My Hiro..._

"How about the guilder instead, then? A little birdie's told me zat you happen to like sparkly things made in Holland..." Caterina flirts, only partly dressed as she saunters about the dressing room and elegantly alights onto Kanazawa Hiroto's lap where he was offhandedly dawdling with the name cards attached, halfheartedly keeping himself preoccupied exploring the plentiful cornucopia of gifts amongst the hay fever ridden floral displays.

Her velvety voice beckons to him, almost as velvety as her red, red lips hovering expectantly near his, as she holds the polished coin between her fingers—offering both the coin and herself to him  
entirely. She wanted to always please him now, her vow when he  
returned to her was that she never wanted to make him unhappy for one moment again.

"...That I do..." Kanazawa says with a smirky smile, rousing himself to enjoy a lingering kiss on Caterina's full lips.

"Have a chocolate?" He emerges from the kiss with a slightly sheepish look in his roving wolfish eye. His crooked smile over well past 5 o'clock stubble offers a sweet treat from the delicately wrapped little translucent red gift baggie he scoops up in his hand from the dressing table's ample gift myriad.

"I'd prefer something sweeter, please." Reveling on his lap, Caterina is rewarded with both a shared nibble of the dark chocolate cookie stick and a passionate lip lock ensuing soon thereafter, as she presses the golden guilder used in jest between her long elegant fingers into the man's pants pocket as proper payment.

Since last we saw him, Kanazawa Hiroto had transformed from the obsolete, aged 'hobo' into a handsome, debonair leading man, full of romance and excitement and warmth—all for the 'Dutch witch' who broke his heart once, and along with it, his soul, when she left him those 10 years ago.

He had lost his beautiful tenor voice and soon the woman he loved as well. That's when a young Kanazawa had turned into a drunken, smoking wreck all those years ago, his career following suit as a result in punishment for his neglect of health and destructive habits

It was only when his Seiso school best friend had found him in that sad, broken down state, and was loyal and kind enough to lift Kanazawa Hiroto up by the bootstraps and sober him up. Kira Akihiko had given 'Kanayan' a teaching job at his Academy when no one else seemed to care if he were dead or alive.

Kira's tough love friendship, along with the knowledge that even when the chips were down, his true love lost and his singing voice  
decayed, his title as 'lead tenor' in the opera troupe revoked, his pride erased—Kanazawa still had a friend. Kira Akihiko had proven to be more than that. The dark man had experienced his own share of troubles and grief enough to fill a lifetime by he still found it in his heart to save that of his boyhood companion.

He gave Kanayan not only a job when no one else would. Not only a living and a place to stay, when no one else wanted, but Kira also gave Kanazawa something new to live for—his students.

Kanayan was at first reluctant to be a music teacher—a role model to young skulls full of mush. He knew he was not a brilliant orator nor scholar, all he ever trained for was in the operatic field. He was very certainly sure he could never serve as anyone's inspiration in anything—never mind a mentor in learning to teach love of music, opening new worlds of discovery, or to be a reliable friend to students. He couldn't think he would be able to endure their mindless questions or their youthful company when, as their instructor, they surely would seek his.

Kanazawa Hiroto never imagined all this in his wildest dreams—and as a drunk, some of them were wild—that these kids would come to love him as their favorite ''Ol Teach'. And he was just as surprised to find himself loving them back! For all their faults and triumphs, they were his 'kids' now. And boy, did he miss them!

Even if it didn't always look like it just now—as a world famous opera tenor with his beautiful blonde songstress hanging on his every whim at last, lavishing him with kisses and repented love, Kanayan's heart was still inexplicably full...


	8. Chapter 8 - Beside My Heart

**Chapter 8: "Beside My Heart"**

Shimizu Keiichi and Fuyuumi Shoko had indeed gone right to work to inform Lili of their plan to reunite Hino Kahoko and her star-crossed lover, Tsukimori Len, the very next day.

It was a cool, crisp Friday afternoon by the time they finally located the slumbering Fata in the Seiso woods and had shared with him the plan. Before the words were barely out of their mouths, Lili had poofed away with a delirious giggle and sinister smile on his little face to do the good deed to Kira Akihiko—his favorite victim.

Their mission set into action, Shimizu turns to the girl standing next to him in the cool forest area. They had walked around in search of Lili for awhile and her cheeks were glowing a soft pink from the cold, the excitement and also, his intense gaze upon her.

When they stop, she begins shivering, maybe from all three reasons combined. Fuyuumi was only sporting a light, but lovely tan and brown poncho over her school uniform's shoulders.

"You look cold...Shoko-san...Here you go..." It wasn't done asgentlemanly, nor as valorously, as it was angelically, but Fuyuumi felt like a princess nonetheless as her blue turquoise-eyed prince removed his own school blazer and places it over the aqua-haired girl'strembling shoulders. Fuyuumi could still feel his body warmth in the cream colored jacket, as his dreamy vanilla scent envelopes her and the pink color on her cheeks was, by now, a brilliant red.

"Th-thank you, Sh-sh-Shimizu-kun..." Fuyuumi was trying not to stumble over her words, as she usually did. She was often successful when it was only Shimizu and herself in the room. She somehow felt at ease with the blonde beauty, except when he dared to touch her like this. Fuyuumi's breath catches in her throat as Shimizu buttons up the top buttons on the blazer as if she were a doll, 'so it won't fall off_..'_

Fuyuumi thought she would die as he finishes and looks up into her beet red face with a sleepy lidded content smile.

_The smile of an angel..._

Fuyuumi hears herself saying inwardly and she felt so blessed, sospecial that he was paying such tender attention to her.

"Before you go home...Shoko-san...will you come...to the practice room...with me now? I'd like to show...you something..." Shimizu says in his slow, plodding way, with his angelic blue eyes on hers expectantly.

"Y-yes..." Fuyuumi nods with a smile at the cello-proficient Shimizu, who no doubt wanted to play for her his latest piece. She loved listening to Shimizu play anything—his playing was able to comfort and warm her soul, right to its very depths. She loved when he played his own compositions even more—Shoko sure that his talent was pure genius and that Shimizu Keiichi would be a famous composer someday, his name renowned, his creativity recognized.

He was so gifted, so sweet, so pure, so angelic in every way, that Fuyuumi often cried herself to sleep at the good fortune she'd been blessed with, to have such a beautiful, gifted boy genius fall in love with her.

At least she thought he was in love with her. She hoped against hope that he was, for she was head over heels in love with him. But being the quiet, reserved types they both were, neither spoke any passionate words aloud, even though he had been escorting her home and taking her to concerts and movies and walks in the forest, just like today, for two years now.

They liked each other immensely—certainly—and felt a kind of calming peace when they were together generally. But Fuyuumi was the type of insecure girl whose lack of confidence of everything could never be 100% certain that she even deserved this perfect, blue-eyed angel's love. In fact, she was sure she wasn't even in his league.  
Shimizu Keiichi's pure beauty of heart, soul and mind were far  
beyond earthly—he was Heaven sent.

All these thoughts and dreams of him brings a blush to Fuyuumi Shoko's cheeks as the emboldened creature takes her arm, crosses the lawns, and leads her down the path and into the Seiso Academy building they knew so well. He slowly, yet purposefully, leads her into a special first-floor practice room—the one that Director Kira had sanctioned for only Third Year Student Shimizu Keiichi to use.

The musical boy genius' composing skills had impressed the Music School director so much that Kira himself put the teachers under instruction that if Shimizu missed classes or fell asleep or failed to do homework assignments, he should get a pass. For the young man was constantly busy composing music in his slow, concise way. Although every second of his waking hours and even into his slumbering dreams—where time meant nothing—were spent immersed in music, the musical ingenue never failed an exam or did less than excel on any pop quiz, for his musical knowledge was vast.

Kira also appreciated that Shimizu spent a great deal of his life in the library, doing his own research that required no teaching. Everyone knew that Shimizu was destined for musical greatness someday.

Especially Fuyuumi.

But she was just as certain that she wasn't worthy of standing at a famous composer's side.

* * *

_Sigh._

Shimizu turns from adjusting his cello strings tension to look at the quiet girl he had seated at the piano bench to wait a few minutes ago. "You must be...getting warm with...that extra jacket on, Shoko-san. Please forgive me...for not noticing...earlier..."

Taking her sigh for being overheated, he drops what he's doing and goes over to her. He unbuttons the cream blazer's buttons and removes it from her shoulders.

"Oh...your poncho, too..." He says, in those lovely patient tones. His deft hands on the cello were clumsy at undressing girl's clothing, as he attempts to untie the knotted bow keeping the tan poncho on at her neck.

"Ohhh." By now, Fuyuumi Shoko was totally flustered. So many blushes had crawled over her entire body that she felt she was going to pop as Shimizu's small hands finally finish untying her cloak.

"There...is that better...now...Shoko?" Shimizu was always oblivious to her mood fluctuations as he sits on the piano bench. She was just trying to catch her stolen breath when she hears the gentle calming strains of the cello reverberate in her ears.

Not just 'the cello' but **his** cello. Fuyuumi could always tell Shimizu Keiichi's tone color from anyone else's. It was so soft, so flowing—so flawless and yet still warm as she lets the new melody envelop her soul. She closes her eyes and absorbs his sentiments.

It starts out softly, like a gentle breeze, then as if climbing, slowly on wings of anticipation upward, that breeze seemed to be asking her a question.

Fuyuumi was always amazed at how expressive Shimizu's beautiful compositions were. Each piece portrayed a heartfelt emotion, drawing a wondrous scene in her head that reached all the way to her heart.

From his bow to his strings, question after question, gently nudging note after note for an answer that he seemed to be awaiting, as if ghostly invisible hands were begging, reaching out beseechingly for a reply.

Fuyuumi opens her eyes when the music stops and she feels a  
physical hand atop hers. Startled by what she sees, she stifles a small gasp. Shimizu Keiichi was no longer seated across from the piano bench she was sitting on. He was kneeling at her feet, clasping her hand in his, leaning his head to it, as his soft curls cascade over her fingers.

His eyes were closed as he reverently smiles, looking more angelic than she'd ever seen him before.

"Sh-sh-Shimizu-kun...?" Fuyuumi whispers in stupefied awe. She felt quite inadequate to express her emotions and didn't know what to do as his head now rested on her still trembling hand.

"Shoko...this is your song...you are my muse...You are my heart's muse..." The words come from his lips, though his eyes never open nor resting head move.

"Shimizu...kun..." She barely squeaks out as her heart races at a million miles an hour, unable to move.

"I wrote this for you, Shoko. Please...play it with me..." His angelic eyes open to display an angelic smile, full of love for the shy girl as he produces a sheet of music from inside his vest pocket. He unfolds it carefully before her.

"Beside my heart..." He whispers as he holds the page open before her amazed eyes.

Fuyuumi's eyes were too filled with tears to be able to clearly read the notes for a moment or two. The score of a musical composition unravels before her eyes, fittingly titled 'Heaven Sent Breeze' in Shimizu's scrawled handwriting.

When she sees the first bars for the _'_**Vc**_'_, soon followed and coupled with more passages labeled _'_**Cl**_'_ and no other instruments designated in his notations, her disbelieving eyes dart back and forth across the page. Her mouth drops open, an awed look crossing her sweet face as she brings a lacy handkerchief to it, fearing the tears that would surely spring forth soon as her heart realizes just what this was.

Not only was this beautiful piece written in her honor, but Fuyuumi was beside herself with the thought that she—little unimportant and unnoticed Fuyuumi Shoko—was inspirational to anyone able to  
compose such a celestial melody. She sees that it was written as a duet for two instruments to play with one another. _'_**Vc**_'_—the cello, not surprisingly as this was Shimizu Keiichi's forte, but also _'_**Cl'**—the clarinet, her own special friend.

It all hits Fuyuumi Shoko's delicate sensibilities all at once. She looks deeply into Shimizu's pure sky blue eyes, glistening for her. This was what he had been working on so diligently all this time. This, the greatest compliment and most precious gift a musical heart like Fuyuumi's could receive. She was so honored and touched that she uncharacteristically drops her reserve, takes Shimizu's hand full of the sheet music, and laces it with hers, hugging the music his heart had written to hers adoringly to her cheek, kissing it with a soft, almost inaudible:

"...Thank you for loving me..." Escapes from reverent, grateful lips that felt so blessed by her angel's 'Heaven Sent Breeze.'


	9. Chapter 9 - A Plaintive Melody

**Chapter 9: "A Plaintive Melody"**

_K__nock knock knock._

"Come in." A handsome, poised young man with icy blue hair, calls out curtly, well knowing who would be entering the room.

"Ousaki-senpai."

In a rather disheveled state, feeling a chill that the weather outside had no hold over in his very bones, Tsukimori Len glances up from the thick German language book on famous composers to meet his roommate's be-spectacled eyes with his own.

"How are you?" Ousaki asks with concern as he steps in Tsukimori's room.

"Fine, thank you." Tsukimori answers, returning to read the dull text.

"How are you getting along?" Ousaki stumbles for any facet of  
conversation.

"Fine, thank you." is the simple reply as Tsukimori once more goes back to intently reading. Ousaki frowns. Tsukimori never was one for intense, long  
conversations, but this was bordering on rude.

"Tsukimori-kun, if you need someone to talk to, or tell your troubles to, I want you to know, I'm here." Ousaki attempts to hold out an olive branch for the forlorn youth, but Len was not biting.

"Really, I'm all right, Ousaki-senpai," Tsukimori takes off his glasses and puts down his book to look up, annoyance clear on his face.

"Oh, good," Ousaki folds under the blue boy's piercing, on the verge of anger, gaze.

Len, feeling like he won some peace, puts his glasses back on and goes back to tackling the foreign words with a furrowed brow.

"Because—"

Tsukimori glances above his eyeglasses threateningly, but brave tenderhearted Ousaki Shinobu plunges on just the same.

"—I thought you might enjoy attending an opera. It's just opening at the Vienna State Opera House. I can get tickets for next weekend."

"No, I'd rather stay here. I have work to do." Coldly, sourly, he was not in the mood for pleasant chatting like Ousaki seemed to be.

"It's 'Rigoletto.'" Ousaki continues, undaunted, though omitting some important facts about next week's particular showing.

"That's nice." Tsukimori Len says offhandedly, disinterested.

"The Vienna Philharmonic is playing." Ousaki offers optimistically, biting his lower lip with hope.

"No, thank you." Len rather forcefully insists.

"Good! I'll go buy us some tickets." Ousaki smiles, pretending not to hear his friend's protests whatsoever.

Len's jaw drops, and he rolls his eyes with a sigh as Ousaki throws on his the beret and coat and hurries out their apartment's door before Len had a chance to say anything about it.

He removes his reading glasses, staring at the closed door that Ousaki just went through with a degree of cautious suspicion.

"Not that it matters what I say...why do you even bother asking me then?" Tsukimori grumbles under his breath to the cloudy windowpane as he watches his senpai make his way through the cold late Autumn streets of the Ringstrausse outside their apartment building.

He thought Ousaki was acting rather strangely lately. "Must be the fault of Autumn..." Tsukimori Len knew all too well himself how  
depressing the latter seasons of the year could be.

How dead, how gray and how garish? How chilling, without a single snowflake to grace the sky with any sparkle, as the sun starts to sink below the skyline, taking any small ray of light with it.

He shivers inwardly, buttoning his jacket closed tighter and pulling his shirt sleeves down over exposed wrists, for Len was feeling the cold exquisitely today.

"Maybe playing will warm me." He says aloud to the thin air, going to his room and producing his violin case. Deft hands caress the  
instrument's precious oak body for a brief moment, before lifting his violin's chin rest to him, drawing his bow over the bridge's strings with expert ease.

Unconsciously, his fingers move, as if by some unseen force, not  
consciously realizing he was playing again just for her, that the  
emptiness inside his heart was just for her, as the music of the first song they ever shared fills the room with a longing his lips could  
never express.

This was the only way Tsukimori Len could ever fully show his  
emotions—through his song. Finally alone, he could let out all the lonely frustration and pain of separation from his love that only the violin's notes could expertly play.

They indeed sounded like a crying, forlorn creature, captured as the notes spread over the room. Damning the bitter Austrian cold, Len throws open the window to let out his heart's sound into the winds that may just blow all the way around the world to land on Hino Kahoko's ears and tell her of his sadness, his longing and his love for her.

Perhaps it will convey his prayer to return to her, his dream to have her run again into his empty arms as strains of his yearning love for her echo through the Vienna streets. More than one brave pedestrian out in the cold sunset is moved by the touching 'Ave Maria.' Children stop to guess where the sound came from, as the adults pause in  
wonder of its beautiful sound, as many a forgotten elderly eye drops a tear or two in complete understanding of the sentiments the musician is trying to express.

Night falls from the mountains over the still city as it listens to the music of a crying soul. Sadly, Ousaki pauses in his gait and looks up, fully acquainted with the source of the heartrending playing.

_How much more of this can he take before breaking? _Ousaki  
wonders, his own sympathetic heart breaking.

Just then, his cell phone's classical ring tone signals an incoming  
message that interrupts his grim train of thought.

_'Hidey ho! All's going according to plan! Director Kira's 'suggested' throwing a graduation concert in Vienna for the graduating class. I'll keep you updated on our ETA. I can't wait to see you again...  
Shino-bunny...Working my end here. Lots to prepare! See you soon!  
Your Nami'_

**_BEEP_**

"Good girl! We'll be here." Ousaki proudly smiles in the cold  
darkness, skipping a step or two as a warmth comes over him when he envisions the vivacious golden haired girl's ingenuity and get up and go in situations such as this. He knew she could pull all the strings together with her vigorous spunk and indomitable spirit.

_I like that in her..._Ousaki smiles, despite the forlorn, yearning music serenading him in the background. He had happy visions of his 'Nami' setting the plan into motion with a special wink from her bright eyes, because he knew, if there was anyone he could count on, it was his girl Amou Nami.


	10. Chapter 10 - Fairytales Do Come True

**Chapter 10: "Fairy Tales Do Come True"**

If ever there was a candidate for the human form of foot and mouth disease, it was Hihara Kazuki. He was so terribly truthful, so honestly oblivious, so simply Sagittarius, that he often paid the price for it. He wanted to be sensitive to others' feelings, but it was like a bull tiptoeing through a China shop with ballet shoes on, playing a horn. Hihara was Hihara—bright, outwardly friendly, spontaneously fun. Everybody and anybody liked Hihara—except for himself today. For all his spirit and joy, Hihara was also the type to come down hard on himself when it came to hurting others.

He never meant a single bad thing—_ever!_ His heart was made of  
sunshine and his smile a rainbow. But today, there was a decidedly  
upside-down storm cloud over him in its place. It seemed nothing could be sadder than when Hihara Kazuki was sad.

He had trudged to work that day, after a sleepless, guilt filled night, only to do one wrong thing after another. Accident after accident happened at the mechanic's shop he worked part-time on Fridays,  
until they had to send him home early.

So, in such a state we find him, wearing his heart on his sleeve, as he puts on his best face and decides to have a go at being 'OB' for a few hours before donning his waiter's apron at the restaurant, hopefully without further troubles, though with trepidation.

But there were no music students in sight when he arrived. He had forgotten how empty Fridays were for helpful OBs.

"I know! I'll go get my trumpet! Maybe that'll cheer me up! Playing 'Old Silver' always does!" Hihara thinks, as he goes to his locker in the teacher's lounge and picks up his old silver friend. He heads up to the roof and begins to play.

But the tune was a sad one, and all the notes came out wrong. Hihara seemed to find 'Elegy' coming from his mouth whenever he was in this state, and the music proved to depress him even more.

In his mind, he sees flashes of last night's scene replay—from tearful Ayano-chan to Hino-chan's sad retreat, to the angered 'hmph-ing' of Amou-chan, Mori-chan and Mizue-chan...

And then there was Miyabi-chan. Her particular face stood out in his memory. _Were those tears behind her bright eyes when she left?_ Hihara could kick himself if he said something wrong to her, too,  
especially.

"I am just so stupid..." He says to the cold winds, leaning against the railing on the roof, letting his sad trumpet fall at his side.

"No, you're not, Hihara-san! Don't ever say that!" A high, squeaky voice protests as a head full of bouncy, purple curls comes from  
inside the stairwell, where she was silently watching the tall boy play his sad tune.

"Miyabi-chan?! What are you doing up here? It's too cold for you!" Putting his own problems aside, Hihara's instinct was to wrap the little girl just wearing her Seiso regular student uniform up in his arms, and warm her cold, red cheeks to his orange scarfed chest.

But Miyabi wasn't backing down. She had had just about enough guff from her brothers and her grandmother—she just couldn't take it  
anymore from anyone else.

"It is NOT too cold for me, if it's NOT too cold for you!" Miyabi  
rebelliously didn't want to be looked down as a child by anyone—  
especially not by him.

_If he can take it, so can I!_

She was so stubborn when it came to being ordered around, and after last night's explosion at both the restaurant and her home after her brother Azuma's shocking email, she'd had had enough of words—her hands turning into shaking fists.

"But!" Hihara was going to put his foot down—Miyabi standing without a coat, without a hat, and she was beginning to tremble,  
despite her protestations.

"I have three older brothers already!" She explodes. "I don't need you to be one, too!" She spits out vehemently in hot breath puffs on the school roof's cool breeze.

"I want you to be something more! Why can't you see it? I don't want you to think of me as a little sister anymore! I want you to think of me as a woman!"

There. She said it.

The truth finally came out of Yunoki Miyabi's little upturned mouth. The sixteen-year-old girl on the verge of maturity and longing to be her own woman so badly, she could almost taste it.

So in a very adult-like fashion, she puts on a pouty face, turns on her uniformed heel and turns away, storming down the stairs from the roof at dangerous speeds.

Panting, she runs, knowing he was on her tail, and not wanting him to see her in this state. Miyabi lithely ducks into a practice room and slumps on a piano bench, trying to slow her rapid breathing.

"Miyabi-chan! Miyabi-chan, wait! Miyabi-chan! I'm sorry!" Hihara was acting less like an adult nineteen-year-old graduate and OB, and more like a lovesick student. But he didn't care what he looked like. Miyabi mattered to him—_she_ was always there for him. It was  
Miyabi who always shared stories about Seiso and communications with Yunoki with him. It was Miyabi who was always there to giggle at his jokes and chat with him, as she filled in selflessly for him at the restaurant, doing whatever task was necessary, no matter how beneath her rich pampered girl status, no matter how dirty her beautiful little hands had to get.

"Miyabi...chan..." Hihara realized his mistake in calling this young woman, who took on so many responsibilities and tasks, like a little girl. She did it all for him. She wasn't doing it only out of love and duty for her big brother's friend—she was doing it because she cared for him, personally.

_Me...Hihara Kazuki...Someone wants _**_me_**_ to love them?_

Hihara was not used to this new thought. He was the victim of  
unrequited love of his own when he was about Miyabi's age.

But when it came to love, age was no barrier. Hihara was looking at Miyabi in a new light, as he intuitively goes right to the correct  
practice room she was hiding in, somehow sensing she was inside.

"Miyabi...May I come in?" Hihara knocks, wanting to treat her like an adult and not hurt her feelings anymore and—

"NO!" It was breaking Hihara's big heart to hear her sobs and upset over him and his big dumb mouth as he leans against the door. How could he be such a clod?

_She's in there crying...because of me..._

"Miyabi-chan!" Hihara couldn't take it. He rushes into the room and falls to his knees. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! I didn't realize you felt that way...about me...I've been a fool, about a lot of things." He himself was almost in tears, his voice breaking as he leans his head into her shoulder.

"No, you're not. You're not, Hihara-san. You're the most kind, most genuine, sweetest and funniest boy I've ever known! I couldn't have opened my own shop and learn how to run anything without your help and kindness! You were always there for me, _like_ a big brother. So, it's not _your_ fault." Miyabi bares her soul into whispers in his wet with her tears hair.

"_I'm_ the one who wanted things to change. I just couldn't stop myself...from falling in love with you. When I first laid eyes on you, all those years ago when you and the other boys came to our home to see Onii-sama...I'm sorry..." Miyabi blurts out her tearful secrets, ashamed of herself and her loss of total control. But really, she couldn't help it—emotions were something that came to her easily, unlike her brothers' guarded ways.

In that moment, Hihara hears Miyabi's laughter in his ears, sees in his memory banks when she was up to her arms in soap bubbles, smiles and sunshine. He realizes he wouldn't be able to withstand his busy life without her to lighten the load and help him cheer it along the way, every step he took. **She** was the one there for _him_—through thick and thin. Their hearts really were so much alike.

As he looks into her teary eyes, Hihara Kazuki could see a light that burned as brightly as his, straight into his weary heart—making it happy and hopeful again. She relit that fire and purpose with the force of her belief in him. She was a girl who needed _his_ love—who wanted _his_ love. And the faith he lost in himself once upon a time was rekindled to try again...

"'Kazuki,' Miyabi. Call me 'Kazuki.'" He smiles as he lifts his head up, encouraged by her sparkling eyes.

"...Kazuki..." Miyabi wondered if she should pinch herself or just  
believe that fairy tales _do_ come true, like she did when she was little, as the two begin a shy embrace. A previously too bashful Hihara lifts her to her feet and gives Miyabi her first soft kiss on the cheek..

_Ding dong, ding dong!_ _Poof!_ _Ding dong, ding dong!_

Just at this tender moment, the ringing cacophony of bells start donging and dinging throughout the school grounds, as only once  
before. Hihara was glad a frightened Miyabi was clinging to him in his arms. After all, she wasn't present at Seiso when last this miracle occurred and it was a bit startling.

Hihara himself wondered what was happening when...

_Poof!_

"Eeek!" Miyabi squeaks a shriek, scurrying behind the green-haired lad when before her eyes appears a certain reckless fairy bandying a magic golden cord about giddily.

"Hurray! Hurray! Kira Akihiko has agreed! Hurray! Hihara Kazuki! Gather everyone together, you know! We're on our way to the music capital of the world, you know—for Seiso Academy's Graduation  
Ceremony! Whooopeeee! Back to the Old World, to spread music around the globe and bring Hino Kahoko and Tsukimori Len back  
together with this golden cord of love! Heeeeee heeee!"

"Lili! Tone it down!" Hihara scolds the exuberant apparition as the music fairy makes so much noise, clatter, and blinding lights, that he thought poor Miyabi would be beside herself.

But instead, she was giggling at the sprightly fairy, waving to touch the Fata with open heart in hands.

"She can see me? Of course! Music lives in her heart, too, you know! Joyous day, Hihara Kazuki! Go tell the others we did it, you know! Quick!" Lili couldn't contain his joy, nor his peals of lyrical laughter at the exciting adventure set to music waiting to unfold before them, all for the love of his dear Hino Kahoko and her friends' belief in the power of fairy tales coming true…


	11. Chapter 11 - That's What Friends Are For

**Chapter 11: "That's What Friends Are For"**

By the end of the day, it was all decided. Hihara and Miyabi had gathered all the friends together at the Seiso Music Room where Kira, with Lili's "help", explained about the "Graduation Concert" that he and Mari had planned to take place in Vienna, Austria. He'd already called some connections in to arrange for the Vienna Concert Hall, to be prepared for the graduating students selected to perform upon its eminent stage, just two weeks from now. There was no time for consideration, so Kira had simply assigned the ones he felt best suited to represent the Academy. That was his privilege as school Director.

Of course, the best Seiso had to offer, was ample-past and present-and Kira hand picked only a choice elite few to fit his music selection. With Mari's astute advice and Lili's (albeit unwanted) aid, the musicians for the ensemble were assembled in no time.

**VN1**: ETOU KIRIYA

**VN2**: HINO KAHOKO

**VC**: SHIMIZU KEIICHI

**VA**: KAJI AOI

**PF: **TSUCHIURA RYOTARO

Kaji, Hino and Tsuchiura were no longer Seiso students, but Kira (and Lili) felt this special "Graduation Concert" could bend a few rules for some of their elite graduates. Especially Hino Kahoko, who the entire trip was set in honor of.

But she would not know about it until the very last minute, Ousaki and Amou had decided. It was to be their little group's well kept secret. And no one argues with a go-getter like Amou Nami when she was in full commando mode. From one moment to the next Amou would flit from here and there and everywhere, her" Girl Power" team ready and willing to help for Hino's sake. They made last-minute arrangements for dresses and rented tuxedos and luggage and airplane tickets, until it all fell into place, like clockwork.

The industrious girl invested a great deal of time planning the big event each night around the Hihara Family Restaurant's confab table where she filled her team in. Nearly a week's worth of group sessions later, while Amou and most of the girls were noisily gathered inside his folks' workplace, preparing schedules, checking maps, and touching base via Skype with Ousaki-senpai at his end in Vienna, Hihara Kazuki was about to be thrown for a loop.

Incumbent jack of all trades, he had gone out to repair the LED lit sign over the door that was on the blink (literally) again at his Mom's bequest upon seeing it malfunctioning before she left for home earlier that night. Knowing he'd be away from his post here for at least a week, dutiful Hihara got to work on it right away, and Miyabi was proud to be his right hand apprentice electrician, even if neither of them had any idea what they were doing.

"Oh, no! Now the left side went out, Kazuki-san!" Miyabi's squeaky little voice was squeakier than ever when the string of multicolored bulbs flutter dim yet again.

"Huh?!" Hihara was becoming as frazzled at the blinking restaurant sign he was vainly attempting to repair. The bright eyed boy leans back on his ladder to get a look at what the little plummy haired girl below was unfortunately relaying, he just glimpsing the darkened 'Hihara Fam-' section of the vivid neon orange letters when his dangerous perch on his ladder begins teetering and his hand bumps something on the sign that makes all the rest of the lights flicker.

"Whoa—oh!

"Steady, man!" Luckily for him, Tsuchiura Ryotaro was just turning the street corner to arrive at the meeting spot, the big brawny man indeed steadying the shaky ladder.

"Are you trying to kill yourself up there? That's quite a drop."

Tsuchiura chides the older teen, somehow always feeling the more mature between he and his senpai.

"He, he, he. Yeah, guess it is." Hihara makes the mistake of looking down, and even Miyabi's large eyes seem pretty small from up where he was on the top rung of the tall ladder.

"But these lights don't want to behave and I've gotta fix them by tonight 'cause we're leaving tomorrow already. Problem is...I have absolutely no idea how to." Hihara explains his plight to the other man, exasperatedly poking at the now exposed wires.

"I learned a few things about LEDs in a home maintenance course they made us guys take back in high school. Plus my Dad was always a pretty good around the house, so I picked up a few things about handling electrics from him, too. Come on down from there, Senpai. Let me have a go at it."

"Thanks, Tsuchiura! You're a pal!" Hihara had not an ounce of envious pride in him that most other males possessedin some degree, he gladly descending the ladder and stepping aside for the soccer jock to put his hand to the electric oar, so to speak.

"The problem probably is because its resistor input voltage runs in a series rather than in parallel. Of course that's depending if it's got the right resistor rating for this circuit, which we'll just assume it does for  
the time being." Both Hihara and Miyabi's mouths drop as they listen to their super athletic, super musical—and now divulged to be super smart when it came to fixing technology—friend rattle off the electrical jargon as if he were a pro at it.

"I just have to locate the cathodes that connect the light emitting diodes to the common resistor terminal's anodes. A-ha! That baby's loose! This might do it..." Within only five minutes time of sheer genius that dim-bulb (pardon the cruel pun) Hihara had already slaved over in vain ignorance for hours, Tsuchiura had the lights—all of them—back up and lettering at full power.

"You're a genius, Tsuchiura-senpai! I don't know what we would have done without you!" Miyabi claps her hands together in delight, giggling up at the now embarrassed red-faced hero of the hour until her eyes catch sight of someone just crossing the street coming towards them.

"Coming to the rescue of his friends has always been one of Tsuchiura-kun's many strong points. Hi, guys." Hino Kahoko smiles at the startled trio with much kind intention in her somewhat deflated voice that was lacking spirit of any other kind tonight.

"Ohh! K-K-Kaho-chan! What are you doing here at this t-t-time of night?!" Hihara stutters with a guilty conscience of all the plotting and scheming going on in the red-head's behalf just beyond the doorway threshhold behind them.

"Oh, I was really trying to master a piece that's been giving me trouble on my violin in the music room after classes finished, but I—" Kaho omits finishing her sentence, the words 'I'll never be as good as Len', she instinctively felt not quite appropriate for the present company to hear.

"My parents went out to dinner with some old friends and I lost track of the time practicing in that room. Just realized I forgot to eat on my way home, so I thought I'd stop by for some of Mother Hihara's wonderful cooking rather than rustling up something from a frozen package back home."

"Ohh." Miyabi just begins nodding up and down mechanically, her face dumbfounded up at a quizzical Kahoko as Hihara and Tsuchiura exchange distracted looks behind her.

"So...yeah...I know it's late, but if I can get in the restaurant now, I'll eat just about anything you've got, even the leftovers, nothing special, just so I ate something substantial today." Hino starts to walk around the panicked pair of Hihara and Miyabi, as both treat her to an awkward non reply.

"W-wait! Hino-chan! You CAN'T go in there!" Hihara frantically waves his hands in the air, bodily halting the poor hungry lass, that he nearly knocks a glaring Ryo off his balance as the tall man was descending down the ladder.

"Why not?" Kaho asks in all innocence, big eyes blinking back at him.

"Why not? Why not?!" Hihara grasps for words, they never his in a tense situation as his eyes glance about wildly.

"Because...because...It's bad luck to walk beneath a ladder!" He finally comes up with with a big toothy grin.

"Well, I'm more hungry than I am superstitious right now." With an amused smile, the girl reconciles herself to going in despite Hihara and Miyabi's strange protests, as she deliberately sidles around both them and unlucky ladder.

"And-And we need your help, Hino-san! All the lighting in Casual Kaiseki has been acting up too! You help Kazuki-senpai and Tsuchiura-senpai figure it out and I'll make a quick extra tasty basket of buffalo wings to go for you, Hino-san! Go on, now! I'll get cooking on the double!" Miyabi orders with a point of her fluttering little hand as she spins on her heel and dashes into the restaurant's front door.

Hihara gives Miyabi a proud, warm, and grateful look for her kind caring & generosity towards the downhearted Kahoko.

Rushing in and making a beeline for the kitchen, she practically crashes into Sakimoto Mizue, whose eager eyes were busy ogling her Ryotaro's tight backside while he worked some brilliance from her secret vantage point below. Mizue had quietly been glued to the front window directly beneath the action of his impressive arm-tensed physique, not that he'd ever notice what she was feeling from where he was outside.

"Wow. Is Miyabi-chan always so bossy?" Kahoko whispers to Tsuchiura as he climbs down the ladder and folds it up to lean against the edge of the building with those rewarding rippling biceps in play.

"Only when she's extra adorable! Come on, Kaho-chan, Tsuchiura-kun! We're the wandering Electric Musketeers tonight!" If Hihara had his trumpet on him, he no doubt would be blaring his courageous little band's arrival, Hino feels a smile etch across her face at the camaraderie shared between Seiso students again. She trots to catch up with a laughing Hihara as they race across the street side by side like kids again, Tsuchiura shaking his mature head with a stifled chuckle at them as he walks sedately behind.

Upon entering the tea shoppe via Hihara's personal passkey—the helpful youth was virtually caretaker, custodian, and repairman combined of the two fragile females' small business Yunoki left in his care. Hihara flips on the lights, glancing around in strange hopes to see at least one burnt out bulb to cover Miyabi's quickly fabricated story.

What greets all three pairs of eyes instead is an overwhelming artistic display of utter devotion and longing the likes of which none had ever before seen and Kaho has only felt within her own aching heart.

"Ayano-chan's certainly been busy." Hihara comments with a low whistle as he looks around the numerous portraits depicting varied scenes and time periods and styles, but all eventually centering back on the artist's one focal point, the true inspiration of an elegant young man they all knew as Yunoki Azuma.

Hihara had been in Casual Kaiseki fairly recently so he knew a great deal of the art exhibition were new editions to the tea shoppe's growing collection. Takashina Ayano's skills as an impressionist artist were quite a draw for the regular patrons of the fashionably traditional yet freshly avant garde café's charm.

Each depiction that hung artistically on the surrounding walls spoke a different mood or beautifully rendered scenery but always featuring, somehow, someway, the unrequited love she clung tightly to with her utter dedication.

At least Kahoko knew more of her distant lover's emotion, though the various watercolors, charcoals and paintings stirred emotion in her soul nonetheless for her Tsukimori Len.

"Girls like that sort of thing, huh?" The down to earth male standing on the left side of her grounded Kaho's soaring heart back to reality, she sharing his smile and enjoying surveying the breathtaking gallery for its tender resolve, if not for the lonely sadness of the artist it represented.

"Who couldn't? Ayano-chan's very talented." She meets his encouraging eyes and then Hihara's happy ones as the three look up and take in the many works of their friend's art with wonder and awe.

"Hey! There's the rascal!" Suddenly shouting out, Hihara was speaking of the blinking out light bulb and not one of the many faces of Yunoki Azuma adorning the tea shoppe walls as he, with Hino's direction and Tsuchiura's assistance, climbs the counter to the erratic throbbing of the illumination's just out of reach pulsating.

_Back across the street..._

"Big trouble girls! I totally forgot passports! I just remembered that I'm still waiting for mine to be processed - it takes forever!" Bursting through the front door with a slam that makes the entrance bells jingle violently, panic stricken Amou looks from each of her already gathered team's faces with a sudden scream, late at a secret Hihara restaurant meeting on a Thursday night before Friday morning's big event (or "Operation Launch" as Amou and Hihara have fittingly named the scheduled flight).

"What are we going to do? No passports. No Vienna." Mizue says forlornly, all the girls shake their heads in worried disappointment. Their hearts sink until the restaurant's bells jingle again and Mori's gaze suddenly brightens.

She stealthily crosses the room to where their own group of hard-working-at-music-practice members (minus Hino) just came through the door.

"Kaji-kun! Just the man I wanted to see!" Mori exclaims, way-laying the teen before he even had a chance to remove his scarf and jacket.

"M - M. – Mori-san? What can I do for you?" Kaji gulps, looking frightened, feeling singled out as she tugs him to the table. He was not accustomed to being accosted in doorways by beautiful women as the rest of 'Girl Power' seemed prepared to pounce on him if he didn't do their unknown bidding.

"Visas. 15 of them. Pronto." Mori says succinctly, with a prodding smile.

"Visas?" Kaji repeats, so scared stiff by the seven pairs of demanding eyes that he felt like ducking behind the other guys in hiding.

"You know, magic papers that let you go on mechanical birdiess that fly over the ocean." Mizue walks up behind Mori, sarcastically using her hands to describe for him the airplane, and then the approximate shape and size of the questioned piece of paper as if she were speaking to a five-year-old.

_Gulp_

Kaji's mind (what there was of it), drew a complete blank about now. His eyes roll around in his head, especially when Etou comes up from behind, puts his hand into Kaji's music bag and produces the golden boy's cell phone, sticking it to Kaji's ear.

"Tell your dad. You only need lucky number 13 of them – Akihiko-san and I already have our own, Aoi-san." Etou's smirk brings Kaji's swirling head back down to earth, and he dials promptly.

After a few minutes of explanations (politicians like to get those, but not give them), Kaji was soon able to assuredly assure the group of their 'Magic Papers ' arrival by the time the "Mystical Birdie " was ready to take off tomorrow, if they'd all enter their vital info into his Blackberry now.

"Kaji-kun! You rock!" Amou exclaims, relieved for a moment or two.

"Crisis averted, Councilor Kaji. You'll make a valuable member of the Diet yet. Well done." Quietly Mori pulls him aside, handing her sweet boy with the sweet tooth the reward of a chocolate fudge chunk on a stick that Mother Hihara whipped up for the conniving lot of friends to snack on whilst late night plotting was in session.

After all, the best laid plans only ran on choco power, never mind caffeine!

Mori squeezes the relieved lad's sweaty palm as he hands her his Blackberry for info entry.

"That's what friends are for, Mori-san. Hee hee." Kaji felt more like fainting than flaunting his powerful family prowess after the mental ordeal, but Mori-san seemed pleased with him. And that made all the difference to Kaji Aoi as he puffs up inside, awaiting another one of her encouraging smiles. He holds up his chocolate fudgie snack on a starry decorated toothpick, gratefully giggling to the pair of stars sparkling with anticipaton and excitement in Mori Manami's eyes.

She indeed awards tonight's unwitting hero with an especially bright luminescent grin across the table, glancing back over to Kaji from where she was typing into his device the other girls' passport info, flashing him a quick 'V' for victory for his fortuitous save of their secret mission at its onset.

Thanks to his influential connections, "Operation Launch" was back on schedule,as they all watch little industrious Miyabi dash across the street to deliver, with a hug, the swiftly prepared to-go plate of spicy delights to satisfy the hunger of our beloved heroine tonight, the team's well meaning plans intending to take care of that of her aching heart very soon indeed tomorrow.


	12. Chapter 12 - Fly Away With Me

**Chapter 12: "Fly Away with Me"**

Another Friday morning dawned bright and sunshiny for the first time in several weeks, but to Hino Kahoko it was just another day.

Or so she thought.

Showered, changed, linked rings secured in place around her neck, breakfasted-just like the routine of every other day, she was just about to go for her long cold trudging walk to the bullet train's tram that would take her to Ferris University, when –

_Ding dong_

"I've got it, Mom!" Hino calls back to her parent, just about to turn the doorknob to leave herself when the doorbell rang.

"Hino-san! It's such a gorgeous sunny day, I thought I'd take you two girls up for a ride!" Bubbling over with smiles and an irrefutable offer, Kaji Aoi turns up on Hino's doorstep, cheery and chipper as ever, yet looking rather debonair simultaneously as he smiles invitingly in his charcoally-black fur trimmed jacket and low-necked maroon shirt. His aqua car keychain was displayed casually in hand as he stands patiently at her gate.

Hino peers out the door to see Mori Manami already loaded in Kaji's sporty silver Jaguar waving at her warmly.

"Umm, I..." Hino wasn't exactly blind to budding romance, despite her own troubled soul. She decides to be magnanimous and give Mori and Kaji some time alone together, she often feeling a third wheel on their revolving cart of love.

"... I've already got a weekly ticket for the bullet. Thanks anyway, Kaji-kun. It was very nice of you to think of me, but I have to be on my way. You two enjoy your ride. It is a lovely day for it." Hino's kind generous heart would get her into such scrapes!

_Ahh! Now what!?_ Kaji panics when Hino gives him a farewell wave and pushes past him on her way out and down the street for her walk to the train station.

"W-Wait! Hino-san.!" He cried out in fear of his blowing his end of the plan already.

"What is it, Kaji -kun? I'm going to miss my train." She says with a frustrated sigh.

"Uh,umm...uh…" The political intern still had a lot to learn about selling pitches, despite the promise he'd shown last night.

"That's just it, Hino-san! What kind of friends would we be if we didn't help you get there on time? Please let us drive you at least part of the way, then you'll surely catch it." Candidly believable, Mori saves Kaji's bacon once again, her art of the con admirable indeed.

"Alright, if you really don't mind," Hino smiles appreciatively, capitulating at last, as Mori gets out the passenger side door and ushers her in. Mori then gets back in, sandwiching the weirded-out redhead between herself and a toothily smiling Kaji as he resumes his place at the driver seat of his stylish leather seated with all the bells and whistles Jaguar Xk convertible.(Being a rich politician's son certainly had it's perks and privileges.)

"All aboard! We'll get you there on time, Hino-san! I promise!" Now he was speaking as a true politician, Kaji calls excitedly as he revs up the engine and pulls out of the parking space at breakneck speed, gunning his silvery bullet of a sports car. Mori and Hino both hold onto their bags and hats for fear of losing them to the wind sweeping above the highway, as Kaji steps his foot on the gas.

Hino Kahoko would 'be there on time.' Kaji was not telling an untruth. He just failed to mention where **"there"** was.

* * *

In the early wee hours of the morning at the Yunoki Residence, side mission "B" had been set well underway as well.

"Are you sleeping , Ayano?" Miyabi finds herself whispering to the thin, trembling form of the young girl bunking out beside her.

"I am not." Ayano whispers back. She never before having a sleepover with a friend and found it rather nice to wake up and have a friendly face to talk to.

"No, no, no. Remember, Ayano?" Miyabi corrects the elder female kindly.

"Yes. I mean, Nope, not me!" It was a strange phrase coming from her usually timid, polite mouth, but Ayano's been worked on hard.

"That's better!" Miyabi reaches under the covers and squeezes her dark-haired friend's hand, only to find it cold and clammy, shaking uncontrollably.

"Are you nervous?" Miyabi asks with a worried brow.

"Nope, not me." Ayano repeats her slang vernacular from before, but this time a bit more unconvincingly.

"It's all right, I'd understand if you are. I would be." Miyabi says sympathetically, hugging Ayano's trembling form.

"You would?" Ayano asks, she never opening up to a bosom friend before like this. Her sisterly relationship with Miyabi had grown in the past two years, and exponentially in the past two weeks.

"Don't you worry! Big Brother will love the new you, I'm sure," Miyabi whispers optimistically.

"He will?" Ayano was not as certain as Miyabi and the other girls on the strange plan.

"He will!" Miyabi giggles, and Ayano can't help but return the smile with some soft hopeful giggles of her own.

"Shh! We'll wake grandmother up!" But Miyabi herself couldn't halt the giggles in the anxiety of the upcoming day's excitement. Shared giggles seemed to be the only cure for their anxiety, as the pair continues their giddy chuckles until tears ran down both sets of rosy cheeks and Grandmother Yunoki's warning stick comes banging on the girl's door. Ayano returns to considering the plan in silence.

If this didn't work, maybe nothing else would. That last message had left Ayano with little hope. Something drastic had to be done, Ayano just knew that if this didn't work, and she lost Azuma-sama, and the promise of a future with him –

She would just die.

So in the attempt to gain his love, his interest, she would, in turn, die trying.

* * *

"Are you almost ready, Mizue!?" Tsuchiura Ryotaro folds his arms and leans against the tall building dormitory impatiently with a dubious expression affixed to his manly face.

"I wanted to get there before... well, in case they need my moral support!" Standing below her window bellowing, Tsuchiura smacks his fist into his palm, displaying his kind of "moral support", though Mizue had no idea when that kind of heroic male nonsense would be necessary today.

"Golly! There's not much dangerous action involved in getting a group of music students boarded on a plane. Sometimes you're such a Neanderthal, Ryo. Sheesh." Rechecking it's latch as she rolls her eyes, Mizue dashes from her dorm room and down the front steps of the Kawasaki City College of Nursing that she was attending.

"I - nothing." A cold silence falls between the friends. Mizue had known who he wanted to rush to see if **SHE** needed him. Ryo was such a lunkhead if he had any thought that that lovesick girl would turn from her true love to lean on his brawny shoulder instead.

"You're such a dunce of a big lunkhead." She murmurs sourly under her breath.

"What?" Tsuchiura thought he had heard –

"It's just a bunch of rigged bulkheads." Cunningly substituting her biting words and reconstituting them to address the structure of the airplane, Mizue's sharp tongue and mimicking eyes told Tsuchiura that something was up, even through her forced smile up at him.

_He didn't even ask why I'm here at a nursing school. Does he even care about _**me**_ and _**my**_ life? Or only _**hers**_?_

Mizue was trying not to be bitter. She had decided to ignore his ignorance, at least for this week's trip to the continent. In fact, she had almost opted to back out many times, but her concern for Hino-san was true, and her loyalty to their "Girl Power" group's righteous cause intense. There was Ayano-chan to consider as well, though honest Mizue didn't deem either of their careless young men worth the gunpowder to blow them to - not worthy of either of their girl's deep devoted hearts in matters of love anyway.

_'Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom._'

Mizue was too fond of Shakespeare to argue with him on that point.

_But who am I to speak of love? It's not like I've got a good track record on the subject myself._ Mizue knew that Tsuchiura Ryotaro now only thought of her as a friend. But still, every now and then she thought..._ maybe…_ _just maybe.._

"Let's go, Ryo." Mizue pointedly picks up her own modest suitcase and loads it into the taxi that Tsuchiura had kept waiting for her.

Sighing himself at not understanding girls sometimes-_Heck! Most of the time!_-Tsuchiura scrambles into the passenger's door behind her and tells the driver: "Tokyo International Airport. And don't take** your** time, please." He says purposely, giving the delaying female at his side an annoyed glance, which she returns, scooting a bit closer to the window and away from him.

_I think you''ve got the 'doom' part right for us, Wills._ She thinks, gazing dully from the window with eyes melting down into the cold harsh reality of black asphalt.

* * *

Shouji Megumi loved the freeing feeling of wind blowing wildly through her hair. She never had known how exhilarating, how exciting it was to be on the back of a motorcycle, feeling the thrill of racing at death-defying speeds and doing crazy stunts like wheelies! Shouji's fragile breath was long past taken away.

And she was loving every second of it!

Her delicate pianist's fingers were tightly clinging to the chest of a young man - another feat in itself that Megumi Shouji wouldn't have seen herself doing in a million years before this. She buried her face in the thick scent of the trendy youth's wine-colored hair and clings to his furry jacket collar for warmth on this cool brisk November morning ride. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, and she even dares to lean into his back as they zip down the highway together.

_Etou Kiriya has such a nice warm body_, she thinks a bit too proudly.

Shouji couldn't help it when her mind wandered to such forbidden subjects. But when seated on the back of a fire red motorcycle going at well over the speed limit, there wasn't much else to occupy a young girl's mind. It felt allowed here on the open road that the violinist and his accompianist often traveled.

Ever since he first touched her hand with his warm-almost hot one- Shouji knew. She had become more and more obsessed with Etou Kiriya. He fascinated her in every way, from the plainspoken not overly polite way he addressed everyone, to the open cool way he spoke almost disrespectfully to adults, to the fact he'd been living in America! Shouji thought everything about him was exciting. Especially when he called her name.

"Megumi."

_He's saying my name again!_ She was thrilled each time she heard his commanding voice anew.

"Yes, Etou-kan?" She wasn't bold as he was - yet -as she continues to hug his back and cling to his warm, warm chest.

"We're here." He announces, taking his foot off the accelerator. The crooked smile tossed over his shoulder made even his coolness warm.

"So you can let go now." Succinctly spoken, Shouji immediately removes her enjoying arms from his body with a start, as Etou steps off his bike and pulls down his only protective headgear - his goggles - from his eyes.

"Come on." After unstrapping her suitcase from the cycle and retrieving his own small satchel tied to the back seat, Etou extends her his one free hand to help her from the motor bike. Shouji revels once again how deliciously warm his fingers and his palm were as they touch his accompanist's adoring ones.

_Way warmer than Tsukimori Len's ever were. _

* * *

There were 13 sets of brandy-new passports in her happy hands, courtesy of 'Councilor Kaji **Junior'** ( _thank you very much- it really is who you know in this world! _Amou thinks jadedly_)_, but she was far too giddy to grumble today about the state of the nation's politics. She'd leave that for another day.

"I do hope we have no late stragglers. Before this – _ahem_ - excursion begins," Kira attempts to make pleasant conversation (believe me, this was pleasant for him) but only Tsuzuki Mari cared - or dared - to respond.

"I'm certain the students will raise themselves to your standard, Director Kira." She smiles shyly, all feminine as she flutters her eyelashes at him.

"—_Ahem_-yes." Kira was still embarrassed to admit having a relationship with anyone. _But I suppose if it had to be..._

His lips almost curl into a smile. But in the corner of his well-trained eye, Kira Akihiko spots that annoying girl (_she's almost as bad as that fairy!)_ trying to covertly take a picture still of Tsuzuki-kun and himself for her school paper's gossip column rumor mill, no doubt.

"Amou-kun?" Kira says, with a threatening look directly at her.

"Yes, Director?" Amou innocently answers, her hidden camera not being subdued - just yet.

"I'm on very good terms with the director of the KanagawaUniversity you attend."

A not-so-veiled threat.

Capping the lens, Amou Nami feels the oppression of her journalist's freedom being trampled upon, her pride injured in the knowledge that she must back down, though. There was too much riding on keeping the Seiso director happy and pliable to the requests and needs on this trip. And their journey was just beginning to set out on its first leg.

So, with a pasted smile, Amou turns a 180°, purposely pulling out her camera again with a flourish. She openly takes a shot of a boy who was blissfully unaware of the world spinning around the interior of the limousine he and his sweet little girlfriend were cuddling together within. Amou clicks a still of the scene. The bright flashing light awakens Shimizu Keiichi, from his slumbering peaceful position atop Fuyuumi Shoko's uncomplaining lap.

"Oh." Shimizu's hair was a curly mess as he sits up from being fainted over onto Shoko's lap at the beginning of this limousine journey. Shimizu was not known to be an early riser, but it wasn't from laziness—rather from his long hours at night spent practicing, honing his skills, and it left Shimizu's human body tired, whereas the angelic spirit was never exhausted. But nonetheless, he always seemed to be, awake or aslumber, in a blissful mood as he was smiling sleepily out at them all.

Mari returns the smile from the seat directly across from him, and even stern Kira Akihiko can't deny the ethereal features a satisfied grin.

"I was having a nice dream." He begins to speak in that slow, plodding way. "We were driving to the station in a car. Yes, it was a car just like this car," Shimizu glances around as it just now noticing he was in a moving vehicle, "and Director Kira and Tsuzuki-san and Amou-san and Shoko-san were all here with me."

"Yes, Shimizu-kun, we're all here with you." Amou smiles patronizingly, patting his hand, knowing the innocent boy's funny slow speech patterns well enough by now.

"And so was Lili." He finishes his sentence, causing Kira's contented smile to crease to a frown at the name. He then involuntarily glances around the limo for the despicable creature.

_No. The boy must just be half asleep and fantasizing, _Kira thinks, certain that that blasted fairy was still safely inside the school grounds, where Kira left it. Lili had even waved goodbye wildly at him, wishing "_A safe and fruitful journey blessed with much music_!"

Kira ignored the foolishness then, but had a really bad feeling about it now.

**POOF!**

"Now your journey will be blessed! Because I am going with you, Kira Akihiko! Hee hee hee! Ha ha ha hee hee!"

"Lili!" On the other hand, Fuyuumi and Shimizu both were glad to see the fairy and here he was, travelling companion to them on their first exciting trip to Europe.

"Where!? Where?!" Amou twists her lip at being the only one in the car not able to see the magical sprite. At least not yet.

"Can't you see him? I told you Lili came, too. Just like in my dream." Shimizu says pleasantly, even as Kira hangs his shaking head into his hands.

_I give up on any semblance of order or sanity now that that_** thing**_ is to be along for the ride. The entire ride. Why me?_ Kira feels Mari's hand touch his gently, sympathetically. _At least you're going to be here, Mari. _Kira's eyes give her a grateful smile back.

"Now we can all spread music and love all over Vienna-and then the world! Hee hee hee hee hee hee! You can't stop me from coming, Kira Akihiko, you know! You can't, you know! You can't, you know!" Lili's taunting gleeful laughter and Shimizu's incessant chatter with the excited fata of traveling back home to the 'Old World' fills the limousine all the rest of the way to the airport, a confused yet intrigued Amou Nami taking notes and having a relaying question and answer session between Shimizu, Fuyuumi, and the invisible visitor, sending the dark Director to depressed deflated doldrums of this week's upcoming prospects.

_All I know is that there no escape from this torment for me, even beyond the blue sky..._


	13. Chapter 13 - Of Mice and Men

**Chapter 13: "…Of Mice and Men"**

"Kaji-kun, I think you missed the turn." Hino Kahoko turns from the pleasant giddy conversation that Mori seemed intent on continuing unencouraged.

So many varied subjects had passed between the two girls, that Hino's head was spinning from trying to keep up with Mori Manami's racing tongue.

And it seemed Mori's wagging tongue was in competition with Kaji Aoi's driving. Hino had been a passenger in Kaji's silver shiny Jaguar sports car many times already since the trio had started school at Ferris/Meiji colleges. Kaji Aoi was not an overly cautious driver by any scope of the imagination, but never had he driven like a madman on a death wish before this morning. More than once today, Hino was startled to a shriek after the high speeding vehicle hit a bump or two all too quickly for any resemblance to a 'comfortable ride'.

"Did I?" Kaji says innocently, though his eyes could not meet the girl's squeezed in next to him, for fear of losing his cool. (Which was a very easy thing indeed for sift-headed Councilman's son sometimes.)

"Yes!" Hino nods emphatically, pointing backwards to the passed by road.

"I don't think so." Mori contradicts in a serious tone, shaking her head plausibly.

"Oh." Hino gives in. After all, Kaji had been driving in these parts for two years now, and if Mori agreed -

"Wait! We're definitely on the wrong road!" Hino panics when she sees the strange sight of a milking cow swishing its tail behind a fence and strange none too grassy field that she'd never seen before.

"I don't think so." Kaji says in his most convincing voice, though it was less than Oscar award-winning.

"Nope." Mori backs him up with a closed-eyed smile right in Hino's face.

"Yes, we are, you two! I saw a cow!" Hino was getting flustered, feeling outflanked on either side as Kaji says something and Mori swears to it.

"You saw….a cow…..Hino-san? Ha ha ha. That's funny." Kaji's acting was improving, though his guilty giggles were so highpitched they were dripping over syrupy, as he looks with wide incredulous eyes at the redhead seated on the convertible's front bench beside him.

"Very funny, Hino-san! You're becoming quite the comedienne!" Mori joins Kaji in the silly chuckling. Hino felt like tearing her hair out about now as the unfamiliar scenery on the long expanse of strange road is added to by billboards for some nearby amusement park's smiling clowns and giraffe cutouts looming down over her.

"Kaji-kun! Wait! We definitely never pass that sign with the clowns and animals on the way to Ferris before!" Hino cries out.

"Shortcut." Comes his simple, clipped reply.

"But -" Hino wonders helplessly, looking to Kaji at the wheel in exasperation as he makes a sudden quick turn.

"Shortcut to the shortcut." He looks away, pretending his immediate attention required to be fixed on the road.

Hino turns to Mori, who just shrugs and smiles saccharinely back at her as if all were right with the world.

Hino swivels around in her seat to look at that billboard for a mile marker or location sign. Her frustrated eyes instead gaze wonderingly at the mass of suitcases and baggage, accompanied by a warm winter coat or two piled in the backseat.

_So that's why I couldn't sit in the back like usual._ Hino muses, not quite putting two and two together yet.

"Are you planning to go on a trip, Kaji-kun?" Hino asks, cocking her head inquisitively.

"Trip? Trip?! Trip!?" Kaji looks to Mori to bail him out, his head empty as the wind blowing through it.

"Oh, well..." Mori's mind rapidly races for a feasible excuse, biting her lip as the wheels in both her head and convertible spin erratically.

"You've found us out, Hino-san." Mori says with well delivered resignation in her most convincing voice, followed by an effective little sigh.

Kaji grits his teeth, shaking his head wildly at her over Hino's in worry of the beans being spilt.

"Kaji-kun, and I," Mori pauses dramatically as she grasps at straws for thought, as Kaji's stupid mouthing of 'Don't Tell!' over Hino's back and forth head, was not helping one bit.

"Kaji-kun and I…" Mori struggles until a brilliant thought pops into her head.

"-Are running away together. Just for the weekend." Mori crosses her fingers behind her lying back, hoping that Hino bought the quickly spun tale as Mori gives Kaji, over Hino's head, a raised brow hopeful grin.

"Ohh~hh." Hino says with a low whistle, looking from one reddening face to the other.

"Please don't tell on us! We're on our way to the airport now." When her eyes focus on him with curious scepticism, Kaji bites his lip for effect with the added corny fib as he shakes his acting head.

"I think that is just so - so -" The two conspirators were hanging on every word, both fully ready for a disbelieving rebuke.

"Romantic!" Hino finishes with the delirious smile and a girlish dreamy sigh, slumping in her seat at the thought. She was too lost in the fairytale tale to wonder much about where that would leave her, if the lovey-dovey couple abandoned both her and their car for a stolen away airplane ride to parts unknown.

"Don't worry, Mori-san, Kaji-kun. I won't breathe a word to anyone!" Hino promises the guilty faced couple on each side of her, placing a friendly palm on each guilty arm.

"Oh! And I'll take very good care of your Jaguar too, Kaji-kun. Thanks for thinking so highly of me, I know how much this car means to you." Hino puffs up with pride at the trust he was placing in her newly learned driving skills with his very expensive vehicle, she petting it's smooth leather dashboard with promised care.

She misinterpreted the reason now that the pair had insisted on picking her up. She thought Kaji intended for her to drive the car back from the airport and keep it while they were gone.

"Umm...Gee…thanks? He he he he." Kaji is just able to squeak out. Mori's quick excuse for their reason to travel to the airport was quite a lot for his little brain to entertain just now. Kaji blushes from the base of his red neck all the way to the bottom of his red toes as his eyes sneak a now bashful glance at his 'runaway lover', Mori Manami unable to squelch her own ear to ear smile back at him.


	14. Chapter 14 - Three, Two, OneTake Off!

**Chapter 14: "Three, Two, One-Take Off!"**

"What took you so long, Aoi-san? You just made it," Etou Kiriya bluntly puts into words (in his oh-so-kind way) what every one of the other Seiso alumni and friends are thinking, as Kaji and Mori race towards the terminal gate of the airport. They were huffing and puffing, loaded down with luggage and bags, viola and violin cases in tow as they had furiously dashed.

"Where's Hino?" Tsuchiura and Kira both ask simultaneously, giving each other and then Kaji a furrowed angry look.

"Just (_huff_) parking (_puff_) the car in (_huff_) the garage (_puff_)." Kaji points back, dropping the three heavy suitcases to the ground. He falls over, hands to his knees as he struggles for breath. The three sets of luggage (_What on Earth did you put in Hino's when you girls packed it for her, Mori-san? Gold bars?!)_ he had deemed to chivalrously volunteer to carry, seemed to get heavier with every successive step. Kaji gave Mori the two violin cases to carry (_They're light)_, because the traffic leading up to the airport had slowed them down so badly that the devious pair had to improvise on their feet.

Literally.

Mori wished now she hadn't opted to wear her tall brown high heeled boots just to display her legs to a certain young man with political aspirations.

"You made her **park your car**, Kaji-kun?" Tsuzuki Mari asks incredulously, exchanging a narrowed glance with the Director.

"Hey! She insisted, so we wouldn't be late. Don't worry! She'll be here soon to see us off! Aoi's given it his all!" Mori defends her partner in crime, as she reaches down to the poor exhausted figure on his knees at her feet, Kaji squeezing the offered hand with a grateful glowing smile upwards.

"We can see you think so." Amou smiles that swipe under her breath, sharing an amused look with the others. Mizue, Miyabi, Shouji, and even Fuyuumi giggle with the giddiness of the day as they watch their bold sister rub her heroic boy's huffing back in caring warm support.

"Maybe I should go find her. There's only a few minutes left." Tsuchiura offers, as he checks the clock ticking away overhead.

"No need to. She's here." Kira states, as his sharp eyes, catch sight of the unmistakable redhead, as Hino uses the escalator and rises to their terminal floor.

"Everyone!? What are you doing -?" Hino Kahoko's confused face at seeing the gathered group grows more startled when she spots Director Kira and Tsuzuki-san there, too.

"Are you here to stop Kaji-kun and Mori-san from running off together? Please, I'm begging you, just leave them be**!**" The kind friend who was Hino Kahoko would stand up through thick and thin for her friends' happiness.

Just as they would all do to ensure hers.

"Kaji-kun and Mori-san are running off together?" Hihara scratches his head, entirely perplexed, that not being in the gameplan laid out to him by the gang at all, as more than a few giggles twitter around.

"No, Hino-san, we're not here to stop **them**." Kira has no idea what has transpired between here and there and Kaji and Mori. (_I suppose they are both consenting adults now. Not in my school anymore, so it's out of my hands, anyway, Thank goodness.)_

"We're here," Kira clears his throat, "to invite you to be a part of SeisoAcademy's Special Graduation Ceremony Concert." He declares in his most pompous voice.

"Oh! But I'm not really prepared -" Hino begins to already back out. She did not feel up to playing much nowadays, publicly, because it was too painful a reminder to her of his absence-especially faced with standing on a stage alone with her inspiration, her musical heart and soul, so very far away. Hino just knew she couldn't stand on a stage again without Tsukimori Len to watch over her.

"Please let me finish." Kira states seriously, lifting his hand. He waits for her to nod.

"A concert celebrating this year's top graduates, to be held next weekend at the Vienna State Opera House, in Vienna, Austria, of course."

"…Vienna…?" Hino's voice was just above a whisper of a whisper. It was as if Kira had just handed her the moon- and she didn't know what to do with it, so exquisitely happy was she to hear the words, that she couldn't believe them.

"I must be dreaming." She murmurs beneath the hot flow of tears of joy, threatening to stream down her cheeks.

"You will be, if we don't get on that plane - right now." Blinking back her own empathic tears, Amou was still an indomitable force to be reckoned with, although her feminine spirit too, about now, was ready to fly with Hino's soaring alongside the plane!

"Let's take to the sky, gang! Vienna awaits!" She calls out the battlecry, her eager troops on her happy heels as she links Hino's stunned with bliss arm in one of hers, and a just as tearful Fuyuumi's arm in the other. The trio marches down to the terminal arm in arm with the rest of the group close behind. Miyabi throws her arm around a frightened stiff Ayano, Shouji and Etou on either side of an already sleepy Sheepy, prop him up as they walk along, as Mizue aides Mori with the excess of violin/viola cases.

Tsuchiura and Hihara come to Kaji's rescue in taking the last-minute suitcases through the airplane's quick-check security. But as Hihara lifts the especially heavy suitcase of Hino's, that Kaji had superhumanly brought in (_along with two others, almost as heavy!- I ROCK!)_ the 19-year-old stops to pause in thought, the wheels of his brain turning.

"Are you and Mori-chan really running off together?" The light green haired OB turns to the red-faced political intern with curiosity. But Hihara was in all seriousness, so open and honest himself, he believed everyone else at their word sincerly.

"Hihara-senpai!" is all the frazzled gangly young man is able to reply. Kaji ashamedly grabs his share of the cases and hurries towards the checking station liftgate, his ears a decided shade of deep crimson.

"What'd I sa - Ouchy!? Not again, Tsuchiura!"

WHOMP!

Hihara's poor head gets another whack to add to the still sore spot from last week.

"You just better watch your mouth in Vienna. I hear they put people in jail for slander real easy." Tsuchiura teases his former elder classman.

"Really?"

_Gulp_

Gullible Hihara believes, again, every word of his reliable friend as he dashes off to catch up with Kaji.

Overhearing the exchange, Kira and Mari can't help but share a smile.

"Kids these days."

That one phrase said it all.


	15. Chapter 15 - The Arrival

**Chapter 15: "The Arrival"**

All eyes were upon the stunning young man as he walks elegantly into the airport terminal. His deportment was as striking as his graceful gait was polished. Every female eye landed upon him with interested admiration, causing every male eye to glare at the newcomer with jealous disdain.

There was something decidedly beautiful and yet enigmatic left in the atmosphere whenever he went past. The long indigo purplish strands of his hair flowed behind him like a champion racehorse's mane. For indeed, this cultured, well bred youth cut a refined yet chic air through the airport as he makes his way through, turning heads in his stylish wake.

Tossing his lavender scarf over his shoulder carelessly, Yunoki Azuma pauses his polished step to gaze from the terminal window. He smiles when he sees the incoming craft through the cloudless blue sky, his heretofore blasé attitude adjusting ever so slightly.

_Right on time, Kahoko._

The cultivated smile curls into a wicked whimper as the smirking eyes envision his old victim—ahem - his old classmate and all the fun they used to have together. At least he had some mercenary fun then, perhaps at Hino Kahoko's expense.

_But at least that was fun. Not like the dull life plotted out for me now._

Yunoki's posh smile never falters for a second, even as his tortured mind - at times cracked - bitterly regretted his highbrow, yet hollow 19 years of life.

_What a waste of time._ His sourly circulating thoughts of dull despair at his situation were not to be suspected for a moment by the swooning check girls and ogling stewardesses he had been oh-so-cordially conversing with while awaiting the plane's landing.

When the automated announcement comes over the loudspeaker of the flight's arrival at Gate 11, poised and polished Yunoki Azuma carelessly tosses his hair back over shoulder. He strides in his elegant way as he places his most genteel smile upon his face to greet the visitors with the expected dull niceties.

_How dull this is going to be._ Yunoki's mind resigns itself to play the part well.

When Ousaki-senpai's phone call came in, asking the rich young man to join him in Austria for his vacation, due to a 'mission of the heart' or some such nonsense, concerning Hino Kahoko, Yunoki had agreed.

After all, at that very moment he was in a "slump."

Not the musical or scholastic or artistic kind, but more applying to the soulful branch. He had hoped for adventure in America, for something wild and exciting to happen to him there, not just more of the boring plodding day-to-day he was destined to be chained to forever. But the New World offered only more of the Old's uninspiring fare.

So when Ousaki beckoned, Yunoki considered it. At least it was something different.

_Why not? I have nothing else to do. It's so dull here, I might as well go and play with Kahoko._

The evil side of Yunoki didn't mean to perform with her as in 'musically on his flute', either_, _as he glances down at the small gift box of American chocolates, holly decorated with a small spray of peach colored Apios and Climbing American Beauty rosettes on top, in his hand.

So when Yunoki Azuma turns his conciliatory gaze upon the incoming group, coming towards him from the distance, his dulled, glazed over eyes strain in disbelief of what they were seeing.

And it wasn't, for once, the bright red headed Hino Kahoko to whom all his attention was once lavished upon, as his warped mind believed it would be again.

No, far from it, Yunoki gave Hino but an incidental glance.

No, it was the gorgeous creature some paces to the left of her, who stood out from the crowd, in his book.

_In any man's book._

Smarmy, swanky, sinister Yunoki Azuma's dark side, for the first time in his entire life, was totally blown away by someone else.

For there, in all her stiletto-heeled, flaming hot red minidress-ed, laced black thigh-highed, diamond dripping anklet glory, was the young 'lady' that Yunoki almost didn't recognize, confidently striding alongside the other Seiso familiar faces as if she owned the world.

She glistened at him like a rare precious gemstone, Yunoki quite feeling his breath taken away as the overly made-up vixen saunters up to him when he stops still in his tracks upon realization of just who she is. The rest of the group part ways and drop back to give this reunited pair some breathing room. And boy, did Yunoki need it. He didn't even notice that any of the others were present.

"Ayano?" Yunoki swallows hard, as he eyes her up and down and in awestruck surprise, trace and retrace her lines before unseen and undreamt of. The quiet, dutiful girl had only worn full traditional kimono dress or dowdy little frocks since as long as he could remember. This certainly was a change, Yunoki's disbelieving eyes were almost bugging out and his ears were just about to join them.

"Do you miss me now, Azuma?"

That's it. End of sentence. No obligatory over the top respectful '-sama' at the end of the high-class man's name. No lowered eyes either, as Ayano -as per training- meets her fiancé's gaze with coy heavy-lidded eyelashes and dark shadowed eyes. The saucy words and catty smile on her face were well worth the weeklong practice sessions it took to drill these essential habits into her unobserved soul.

At first reluctant to even consider changing her pure, reserved, subservient image, Ayano took some convincing by the other seven girls to get her to agree to this total makeover. It was only when, after all were privy (by Miyabi) to the 'Rat''s aka Yunoki's latest e-mail, that they all had come up with this plan B(in between the Hino x Tsukimori plan A already set in motion).

Amou and Mori and Mizue and Miyabi and Shouji, and even Fuyuumi in her quiet way, had gone to work on Ayano.

_Yunoki longed for excitement?_ They would give it to him on a golden platter!

And boy did it pay off! Amou and Mori nudge one another as they note how classy, cultivated Yunoki Azuma was doing all but panting as he drinks his betrothed in with new, astonished eyes.

"Yes." Yunoki recovers finally, taking in a deep breath as he lifts Ayano's long painted fingernailed hand and bestows a kiss upon its engagement ring finger as a symbol to the once shy, dull, unassuming, boring girl transformed into a delightfully exciting and changeable woman, who could be a shrinking flower one second and wild blossom the next.

"I do believe I can now." Yunoki sees, for the first time in Ayano's once glassy doll eyes, a light that he found to deliciously thrilling.

_A doll that I can change and adapt to suit me? How unexpected. How exciting! What other mysteries do you hold in store for me, Takashina Ayan ? I wonder..._

And just as surprisingly, Yunoki places his thin arms about her tight waist, quickly gathering Ayano unto himself as he looks at her in a ne and different light. He then quite brazenly, albeit gentlemanly, plants a soft kiss on Ayano's moist red lips, looking quite pleased when they part.

"A surprise for you, as well. American flower of Beauty for my Japanese flower of beauty." Yunoki's eyes were devastating upon Ayano, his mouth parting to curve in a smile dripping with intrigue and interest, as he holds up the gift box with slender one hand in offering.

Ayano, for her part, was doing all she could to keep from swooning, leaning deeply against Azuma-sama's chest as as she accepts the present previously intended for his _'toy_' Hino Kahoko. But that little unimportant fact was blissfully unbeknowst to Ayano, Yunoki's new '_doll'_.

Yunoki strokes his dolly's hair, then takes her upon his arm, the girls watching with baited breath, as Yunoki Azuma claims her quite possessively.

_Way to go, Ayano-chan!_

The girls exchange fist bumps of triumph behind their own guy's heads, the delicate sensibilitied young men more shocked to embarrassment than excitement at this unexpected, way too outward by modest Japanese standards kissing liplock display.

But the girls at an age that yearned for romance appreciated Yunoki's forwardness completely. Miyabi smiles most of all, she loving her brother so much that she desperately wanted him to be happy with Ayano at last.

"Yunoki?" His voice breaking, Hihara had (as instructed by Girl Power) patiently waited his turn to greet his best friend, whom he too hadn't seen for going on two years. But seeing Yunoki kissing Ayano!

_In public too_! Hihara was shocked at Yunoki's ever-changing behavior, but he had told himself to get used to it.

_As long as you don't want to change best friends, too._ Hihara thinks with a worried brow, but his anxieties were appeased when Yunoki's intrigued eyes on Ayano's lithe figure perched agianst him, turn to Hihara with that same friendly bond, that they two always shared.

"Hihara, I've been hearing good things about you from Miyabi." Yunoki smiles over Ayano's head. Hihara was not quite sure what that knowing look passed between the siblings meant as Miyabi takes this chance to dash up and snuggle her brother's spare arm, the one that Ayano wasn't a prisoner of.

"Oh, yeah? Hee, heh, hee. It's great to see you. Hee, hee, hee." Hihara chuckles nervously. He had watched movies and had heard enough stories from other guys his age about 'terrible older brothers' when it came to younger little sisters and older aged boyfriends.

_Poor fellow. You'll be one of my insane family soon enough_. Yunoki chuckles generously to himself at how well Hihara and Miyabi fit together. As he watches the two go to help claim his luggage from the rack, Yunoki was already pitying his best friend for the trouble that was sure to follow if he wanted into his loony family, if Yunoki knew his grandmother well enough.

And by now, Yunoki Azuma knew his grandmother very well indeed.

_Poor Hihara._

But Miyabi's big smile from ear to ear was visible from where Yunoki was standing, as Hihara pretends to let her help him carry some luggage (like his 'very heavy' trumpet case or a 'great big' violin one or two). Miyabi even has a giggle fit on him, when she accidentally pops the trumpet case open, extra reeds and papers and spit cleaners spill all over the Viennese airport terminal floor. She looks up, embarrassed at her own clutzyness. Hihara giggles right along with her, never angered at all for her dropping his precious friend. And as the pair scurry about the busy airport, in between bemused arriving passengers' legs after flying papers and windswept musical notes, Yunoki smiles as well.

_Lucky Hihara._ For Yunoki truly was fond of his little sister deep down in his chaos tortured soul.

"Shall I collect your luggage, Ayano?" He directs the polite question at the dark beauty on his arm, and she nods back at him shyly.

"There's my girl." He whispers in her ear huskily, causing Ayano's eyes pop out as Yunoki lets his hands slide across her bare back rather luxuriously before his wandering fingers depart. He leaves her be to retrieve her luggage from the conveyor it was spinning down from, beside where Hihara and Miyabi were dizzily waiting. Alongside them was a comically sleepy-on-his-feet Shimizu Keiichi, who was attempting to catch his and Fuyuumi's luggage handles and missing so many times as they circulate and are bumped by other quicker passengers. Shimizu only manages to take hold of the wrong one every time it seemed. He had to apologize to many an astonished traveler before he actually lays hands on the correct ones. But then they were too heavy at that for him to pick up, though he tried in vain. But that's what big strong friends like Tsuchiura Ryotaro were for. Tsuchiura did his part and more for the group, picking up and loading onto the pushcart most of the girls' (and Shimizu's) luggage, not to mention more than a few instrument cases.

"Wow! You're so good at this, Tsuchiura-kun! Maybe you should take this up for a living!" Airhead Kaji Aoi thought airport travel was a very exciting thing, indeed. Tsuchiura gives the golden haired lad an odd look.

"I think I have something higher than an air-porter in mind." Tsuchiura smirks inwardly at his own joke, even as a faraway look comes to his eye. Bringing himself back to reality, Tsuchiura smacks his hands together, task accomplished.

"There! That's all of them!" Only slightly jetlagged, Tsuchiura rubs back this neck after he, Kaji and Hihara finish loading all the luggage into the two carts they had commandeered. Tsuchiura glances around at the gathered group to see a silent as a butterfly Hino Kahoko still clinging tightly to her own violin case, as if it were both beloved friend and precious treasure-and if she let go of it, she might just awaken and the dream would end.

For Hino, that's how this surprise trip felt. The magical, wondrous dream she had experienced every night since he left. This was just like every night all over again. She would find herself whisked away through the skies to the mystical land of Vienna, where her handsome Prince Charming awaited her, beckoning to her with the beautiful strains of his violin playing, calling out to her of his loneliness, of his sadness, of his love...

So Hino hugs the precious envoy of her happiness to her throbbing chest. His music was just waiting around the bend for her, and her beloved violin could sing again.

_Just a little more, then you can sing again...live again…love again_… Hino whispers to her violin as if it were a living creature who, only with the power of their love, could its golden cord truly ever gleam true.

Watching her daydream, Tsuchiura smiles, not uttering a word as he pushes one cart towards the exit, where Yunoki had already arranged for a pair of stretch limousines to take them to the posh hotel he had already selected, booked, and paid for. Looking to the sky above, breathing in the Austrian air for all its richness of musical culture, Hino is beside herself with anticipation as they all load into the limos, excitedly, one by one, two by two.

For this dream might be real this time, when Hino Kahoko would soon step a solid foot onto the fabled city of the Vienna of her dreams...


	16. Chapter 16 - Vienna,FabledCityofMyDreams

**Chapter 16: "****Vienna****, Fabled City of My Dreams"**

A light sprinkle of snow begins to fall on the city of Vienna as if in a snow globe dream. So, that is how the wondrous world outside the window of the Grand Hotel Wien (where Yunoki had arranged for an entourage of limos to bring the incoming group to) seemed to Hino Kahoko. It was as if she was replaying a scene from her dreams. From the grand ornate lobby on a gold leaf hallways and posh elevators and classically carved details in the rooms, Hino and never been in such the lap of luxury before. From the brocade curtains to the embroidered French chairs, from the gold gilt furniture and exquisite canopy beds, her hotel room was nothing short of fit for a queen. And you should just see the deluxe bathroom!.

But wandering around the ritzy hotel room aimlessly, Hino would rather forgo all its beauty. She landed in the window gazing outside at the light dusting of snow fall, wishing for something beyond the elegant windowpanes. The Grand Hotel Wein may indeed have been inspiring, but it seemed not to have that effect on either girls in this room. For Amou Nami was too busy texting and e-mailing, building schedules and making acquaintances she would need here in this foreign city.

Amou had seen it all before, from her journalism crash course that had taken her halfway around the world to stay at many a fine hotel and attempt to hobnob and interview a diplomat or member of royalty or two. Amou had purposely assigned herself to be Hino's roommate, even though Yunoki Azuma (_Mr. Money bags!) _had booked each of them a separate room. But Amou wanted to be close to the redheaded girl, maybe serve as a confidant, because any woman having a relationship, especially with a guy like Tsukimori Len, needed someone to talk to you - someone to share secrets with, someone to –

_Huh?_

"Are you there, Hino-san?" Amou pauses kicking her legs in the air on the ornate bed to glance up. The stunned redhead hadn't been much for conversation since they arrived. That glossy, dreamy look in her eyes told perceptive Amou that. So Amou Nami had left a quiet dumbstruck Hino Kahoko to collect her thoughts and dreams while she herself was busy planning the next week they were to spend here in _Wein_, abroad, on her various mobile devices.

That was when she was sure she heard a door close somewhere in the spacious room, despite the hotel's swanky thick carpeting. Amou glances around the room furiously, spying that nothing was missing from their still unpacked suitcases.

Nothing missing but the beloved violin case, and Hino's winter coat.

"Ooh! She doesn't let the grass grow!" Amou's eyes light up, with the fascinating story.

"Shinobunny!" Amou cries out her accomplice's affectionate name, her cell phone already on redial before it even left its place in the bed.

"Girl on the move!"

* * *

Each snowflake that tickled her nose with its cold fingers told Hino Kahoko she was really alive. Truly alive and not just in the dream she's dreamed so many times. Nearly every night for two years, they would go just like this:

She would be walking down an unfamiliar street, taking in its new sounds, new scents, new atmosphere like she was walking on thin air. Or was she floating? Hino wasn't even sure if her feet were touching the ground anymore. Only the crunching of autumn leaves beneath her feet and the whisper of the cool wind in her hair was proof of the fact, as gold and silver rings dangling at her throat tinkle music in her ears.

Facts? Reality? Did either mundane creature even exist in the city of Vienna? Or could dreams and fantasies be part of this world? Part of her world? Hino was only now beginning to believe, as she floats down the fabled city of the Vienna's avenues in the direction her heart knew she should go.

Because he would be there, just as he was in every night's fantasy, standing as straight and tall and handsome as ever, all traces of sadness on his beautiful face immediately erasing the moment she arrives. When across the snowy distance, their ears would hear each other's heartfelt music, and know it belonged to the other...

And there he was, the scene of her fantasies perfectly played, as if her dreams were reflected by the mirror angels above call 'the Sky' watching over them both, as surely as it was already written down in the book of life He scripted long ago for two destined souls like Hino Kahoko and Tsukimori Len to meet once again...

* * *

Just a few minutes ago, Tsukimori had felt possessed to play 'Vienna, City of My Dreams' on his lonely violin as he let his music echo through the empty park. Something had called him to this particular section of the park across the Avenue this particular afternoon at this particular time. It wasn't his usual hour for his lonely stroll, but something caused him to bring the report that he'd generally stew over in his solitary room indoors, to instead sit on the bench and stew over it outdoors. Dressed warmly in a navy blue turtleneck and trenchcoat, Tsukimori couldn't keep the wind from scattering his mind to the other side of the world.

Today, he couldn't focus on filling out the rest of his personal thesis on Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy.' After scribbling a phrase or two on the page, Tsukimori gives up on it. He turns the mostly blank page into a paper airplane and wistfully tosses it into the air to see if at least the wind could make some sense of his jumbled thoughts of mind and heart today.

That's when the paper airplane flies down to the feet of a young girl.

Eyes meet eyes. Soul meets soul. Tsukimori wasn't sure at first, if he was seeing a mirage, a dazzling Heaven-sent mirage that was playing tricks on his hungry eyes in between the falling sparkle of snowflakes.

"Kahoko...?" He gasps. Joyfully pleased, excitedly ecstatic, blissfully happy, there weren't enough words in entire languages in the entire world to express what Tsukimori Len was feeling at this moment. Not that he'd use any of them anyway, being the quiet stoic type he was, even as the ethereal goddess of his dreams was standing not 20 yards away.

She starts to tremble. Hino Kahoko had lived this moment, played the scene in her head so many times, but still, she was at a loss for movement, so in fear it would all shatter into broken glass shards and disappear before she could catch hold of any of them. Hino collects her wits and bends down to pick up the paper airplane at her feet. She stiffly unfolds it with fumbling fingers, blindly reading the two sentences written upon its stark white parchmen

**"My thesis on 'Ode to Joy'"**

What joy is there in music without love?

…Without my Kahoko...

...there is nothing...

And that was it. The fine familiar penmanship was unmistakably that of the darkly dressed man who stood in the park before her.

That question. Her name lightly scrawled beneath.

Hino's eyes glisten with tears, pure emotion carrying their immobile legs to each other. She crosses the cool crisp ViennaPark expanse in a matter of flowing seconds that seemed an eternity away, until she was racing with fairy's wings upon her feet, straight into his waiting arms.

Tsukimori Len gazes down upon the teary eyed girl in his arms with a smile, seeing the well-kept necklace he had placed there, still about her graceful neck.

_She's still waiting for me..._

He closes his eyes with the grateful feeling of knowing that his love had appeared as an angel would, just when he was calling for her, when he needed her most. They were two parts of one soul, calling out to one another and reuniting to answer Love's call...

_Never, never will I let you go again_. Len pledges silently as gentle wisps of air swirl around the pair eternally bonded by their heart's musical golden cord of love...

And Tsukimori Len discovers in this moment what his 'Ode to Joy' truly means….


	17. Chapter 17 - Breaking News Story

**Chapter 17: "Breaking News Story"**

"Ousaki-senpai! Have you seen her yet? I couldn't keep up with her!" Amou Nami comes barreling down the same Avenue that Hino Kahoko had ethereally floated on invisible wings through. Hino had somehow moved faster than the agile reporter on high-speed heels could achieve.

"Yes, I have, Amou-san. It's so nice to see you." A sense of fond familiarity between the conspiring pair, Ousaki Shinobu tips his beret to the inquiring mind with his ever present pleasant smile. But right now it was even more pleasant than usual. He looked quite pleased with himself as he points across the street from the House Doebling that he and Amou were standing in front of.

"I think everything is going to be just fine from now on." He comments, adjusting his glasses at the scene, pretending to wipe snowflakes from their embarrassed cloudiness.

"Yes, I'd have to agree." Amou smiles a devilish smile, sad she had missed the exact poignant moment, but glad that it finally happened. Both she and Ousaki blush at the romantic scene of Hino and Tsukimori just parting another rather passionate kiss.

Tsukimori places the smiling red-cheeked girl's arm in the crook of his as they walk through the autumn's late apple blossoms, blowing on a soft breeze, eyes entranced in one another's. A glow of pure happiness seems to befall the entire city as the cloudy gray day of just a few minutes before is replaced by a bounty of sunshine, whose rays glorify each iridescent snowflake that falls upon the park.

Ousaki and Amou exchange a triumphant look as church bells ring out throughout Vienna.

"So," Ousaki smiles at her sweetly. "Would you care for a stroll down the avenue, Miss? It appears that all your hard work is paying off, and you deserve some down time of your own." Ousaki takes Amou's hand in his with a victorious squeeze, as together they survey their handiwork.

Tsukimori and Hino were lost in each other's eyes walking arm in arm through the Vienna park beyond the Ringstrasse.

"**_Our_** hard work, Shinobunny." Amou smiles, squeezing his warm palm right back as Ousaki glows at her cute nickname for himself back at the girl on his own arm.

"Oh!" Amou suddenly recalls. "It was ingenious of you to call in from America our resident wealthy powerhouse. Yunoki Azuma has done us proud. You should see the hotel rooms he's booked for us." Amou was one to give credit where credit was due.

"I knew I could leave those details to his refined, able hands. It's right up his league." Ousaki was sure he could count on their old friend despite the physical distance between them.

"And what of 'Mission B'? Have we done Yunoki proud?" Ousaki raises his glasses, quickly with a sheepish grin.

"And how! You should see Ayano-chan! My girls certainly know how to transform a tame, shy demure kitten into a ferocious sexy tigress in record training time, if I do say so myself." Amou's excited eyes were a glow like a mischievous lovely little devil.

"A-hem, yes. Oh, dear." Mild Ousaki was chuckling despite himself, though a bit ashamed of this particular end of the plan. He was not so certain, if they, for all their good intentions, really did well by poor Ayano from the raucous sound of it all.

"I suppose I have been a bit less than completely open and honest with Tsukimori's questions myself." Wanting to get his own sins lifted from his chest, Ousaki confesses to his partner in crime. They laugh together beneath the umbrella of swaying autumn trees that lined the avenues of the Ringstrasse Ousaki was maneuvering them down.

"All for the cause?" Amou tries to comfort him with a smile. She sensed that tender hearted Ousaki Shinobu wasn't born to be a schemer, a plotter - like she was.

_It's all part and parcel of being a great investigative news woman!_

"All for the cause." Ousaki adds his smile to Amou's bright eyes soaking up how dapper he looked in the dark maroon sweater turtleneck she had sent him through the mail for his last birthday.

"Well, fellow schemer, care to cleanse your soul for a while?" Ousaki points Amou's gaze to the place where he goes whenever in need of his own soul-searching in this city far from home. Amou just notices now that her clever scheming fellow had just happened to take her in the direction of the beautiful Vienna Roman Catholic Cathedral.

"Lord knows I could use His help." Amou smiles to him with a nod as the pair walk into the ornately decorative Lord's House, that was always open to all who need His Guidance, His Grace, His Love.

_That's why He gave me you, Shinobu._ Amou Nami thinks, counting herself a lucky girl to have the influence of such a good, kind man as Ousaki Shinobu in her life. She smiles as he lets go of her hand to aid in elderly man through the door and get him situated in his pew. And then he escorts another even older woman to the front altar with her rosary beadsclutched firmly in her prayerful, grateful hands.

_Always thinking of others._ Amou proudly smiles, when Ousaki returns down the aisle to where she had secured seats in the pew for them both. When he squeezes in beside her, she takes his warm hand in her cold one and they smile to one another in silent understanding as the service begins.

A strange warm glow comes to Amou's cheeks as emanating from beside her, Ousaki's mellow voice sings along with the congregation the church's opening hymn.

_Breaking news! Amou Nami! You're in love!_

The reporter girl smiles to herself, she having the suspicion before, but now, face-to-face at last, she was sure of it. As Ousaki' s smooth velvety voice flows along with the melody beside her, Amou's feelings ring throughout the vast cathedral hall as well.

Unnoticed by either of the two budding lovebirds, another couple with hues of azure and crimson were called by the ringing church bells' music to find their way into this place of peaceful solace, too. Holding hands, in silent gratitude, Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko both give thanks to He who had, in His infinite wisdom, brought them back together to share once again in the infinite warmth of His gift called _Love._...


	18. Chapter 18 - Jet Lag

**Chapter 18: "Jet Lag"**

It was daytime when they left Japan, and it was daytime when they arrived in Vienna, but once the excitement of the foreign city and its elaborate luxurious hotel wore off, jet lag set in.

Shimizu actually had to be carted in along with the rest of the baggage. The time delay hit the already continually tired boy hard, and Shimizu was already fast asleep again from the limo ride before Hihara and Tsuchiura even finished putting him down on the great big bed in his Grand Hotel Wien room. After they dumped him, the two exhausted souls left to settle their own luggage and affairs.

"The sixth floor, please." However, Kaji Aoi didn't seem a bit tired as he smoothly directs the elevator lift attendant to the visiting group's intended floor. Most of the girls were eager to get to their rooms and they enter the gold gilt elevator going up with him. Awed by the hotel's front lobby ambience, they would all have been ranging from nervous to frightened, if not for Kaji Aoi's experience in hotel travel prowess.

Kaji was constantly chattering all the way up the elevator as if he was an old pro at staying in hotels. That would be because he was, ever since he was a small boy, as the son of a national politician, he'd seen his share of hotel rooms and public arenas filled with strangers. Come to think of it, Kaji rather enjoyed new society, new scenery, and new acquaintances.

"…and that meant making new friends like the nice porters, to hear new stories from the helpful maids, or hear new ideas from the friendly attendants." Kaji gives the foreign teenaged boy attendant with the elevator cap, his broadest, most winning of smiles, receiving one in return, despite the language barrier.

"So I've never minded Dad's political trips when he let me come with him. The older folks were always real nice to me. I'd get extra desserts or candy or toys sent up to the room from people I never even heard of before! It was a kid's dream!" A delirious smile on his face, Kaji had been explaining to Fuyuumi, Mizue, Mori and Shouji his blessed childhood as he casually leaned against the elevator door. The attendant boy didn't want to spoil his new friend's fun with silly things like hotel rules, so he said nothing. Kaji's effervescent attitude about life had that effect on people around him. The tired girls couldn't help but smile at his elevator entertainment.

The elevator climbs up the flights quickly, Kaji standing on his own two just seconds before the elevator bell rang and the door slid open, giving the attendant a generous tip. Kaji then turns to his female audience with a suave smile.

"Show-off." Mori smiles flirtatiously, fanning Kaji's chin with a brush of her room's card passkey.

"Good night." Fuyuumi waves to Mizue and Shouji as all three give a grateful nod to their escort. The latter two use their passkey and quietly enter their shared room.

"Which room did you say was Shimizu-kun's and mine, Fuyuumi-san?" Kaji Aoi's boisterous voice could be heard clear across the sixth floor hallway. It was soon followed by a tiny squeak out of a girl who felt quite overwhelmed by this entire ordeal if it had not been for her friends, even if some were boys.

"R-Room 608." Fuyuumi answers softly almost in a whisper, scooting back to him, too frightened out of her mind to call across the fancy foreign hotel hallway like he did.

"Oh, right across the hall from you guys!" A great big smile turns Kaji's whole face into pure sunshine as he walks Fuyuumi back to her door where Mori was waiting, hands on teasing hips. Mori clears her throat, giving the deliriously smiling boy, leaning a suggestive seductive eyed arm over their doorway, a coy look when Fuyuumi innocently interrupts.

"Maybe I should,... um..." Fuyuumi looks down at the precious cargo in her hands, calling Kaji and Mori's flirtatious advances to a screeching halt.

"Oh, yeah, Mori - I mean – Fuyuumi-san!" Kaji transforms from romancer to bumbling fool in the flash of a eye. He stutteringly bids a chuckling Mori 'Goodnight' and escorts Fuyuumi and her cargo to his joint room across the hall. He fumbles with his passkey under Mori's alluring gaze, despite his boasts of hotel savvy, until the teen was a shade of beet red, hot under the collar, so to speak.

"Please come in, Fuyuumi-san!" Kaji does a full bow (if only to hide his shamed face) after letting himself and the girl into the room.

And there lies Shimizu Keiichi, just as Hihara and Tsuchiura had left him, plopped on the large queen size bed with a pleasant smile etched on his face, as if he were enjoying a lovely dream.

Feeling quite uncomfortable by herself in the two boys' room, Fuyuumi carefully holds the large cello case that she had been dutifully carrying. She had wanted to deliver the beloved instrument to its owner by a familiar hand, rather than a stranger's, and leave just as quickly.

She goes over to the bed and pauses to just stare at the angelic beauty of the sleepy boy's soft toned features. Sure, Fuyuumi had seen Shimizu's slumbering face many, many times before –that the state Shimizu Keiichi was in more than he was awake -and yet still, it was just as breathtaking now as it was the first time.

"D-Do you think he's - he's cold, uncovered like that?" Fuyuumi boldly asks, she worried despite the fact that the blonde angel was still donning his brown fur collared winter coat that the boys had just plopped him wearing on the bed hours earlier. She surveys Shimizu's still slumbering face and the headphones he had continually worn and listened to the entire airplane trip and limo drive to the hotel. The IPod was on repeat and she could faintly make out the music he had recorded of they two playing his newest composition. He had insisted on having it, saying over and over how he wanted ' to hear Shoko's tone color in my head, even when you're not there'.

Fuyuumi smiles at the sweet recollection, still waiting for a response from the awake occupant of this shared hotel room. But Kaji's attention was long gone. He was already busily fixing the satellite TV for his favorites settings. He turns to her from the adjoining front room's copper tan velvet couch he was seated at with a blank face, feeling her stare on the back of his neck.

"Guess you should cover him." Kaji shrugs nonchalantly, turning back to his TV channel's prompt.

"All right." Fuyuumi, even bolder yet, puts down the cello case still clutched in her hands and goes to work. She gingerly tugs first one side of the thick comforter, and then the other corner, proving only to knock off a pillow or two when she finds it not pulling loose from under even Shimizu's light body weight. Pausing, she then decides to try to pull the bottom down solidly. But try as she might, with all her small strength, Fuyuumi only succeeds in nudging Shimizu down the bed a few inches. Shimizu doesn't even stir a muscle.

_Sigh._

Fuyuumi was at a loss what to try now. She looks around frantically, catching Kaji's eye.

"Is something wrong, Fuyuumi-san?" He wonders, finally getting his favorite channels inputted and remote ready. (_Important guy stuff.)_

"I – Shimizu-kun - I can't -" Fuyuumi was almost in tears at her inability about now, as she glances from the bed to her small hands to the immovable boy halting her mission, then back to Kaji with a plaintive expression on her face.

"Oh! How thoughtless of me!" Kaji cries out loudly enough to wake up the dead - but not a live Shimizu Keiichi after jet lag. Kaji simply goes to the bedside and scoops the sleeping boy up by his armpits, like he was a rag doll.

"There, Fuyuumi-san." Kaji says, straining. "Pull the sheets down now... please."

"Oh!" Fuyuumi scurries around one side then the other, doing her best to pull the covers down enough for Kaji to unceremoniously plop the sleeping beauty back down to the mattress.

"Boy, he's heavy when he's passed out like that." Kaji comments, leaving Fuyuumi to cover Shimizu back up as he returns to his own 'guy stuff', watching who knows what on the boob-tube.

"T-Thank you, Kaji-senpai." Fuyuumi whispers politely, though getting no reply, save for a smiling backhand wave, as Kaji was already absorbed in some sci-fi flick flashing across the TV.

Fuyuumi gets to work now, rolling her sleeves up, and she gently tucks the lightly snoring boy in. But even that was proving difficult. Shimizu, in his state of slumber, had turned on his side after Fuyuumi had just untied his shoes, making it very hard to slide them off. Then, after she struggles to manage that, his one arm knocks the pillow she had just replaced on the bed back to the ground. Pillow returned again, Fuyuumi flutters first the sheet over Shimizu, but whilst going to add the blanket provided, one of Shimizu's feet come kicking out, socked toes exposed again. Back down, she goes to re-cover first one foot and then the other that soon joins its irksome partner's lead.

Both feet finally tucked in completely, Fuyuumi returns the top of the bed. She gently tucks the sheets about the boy's shoulders. But in her ministrations, Fuyuumi can't help but pause to gaze down at his face, his beautiful, peaceful features still having that smile written all over, as if in his dream, all was right with the world.

That's when one of his arms falls out of the sheet Fuyuumi had so diligently placed there. She stands there for a moment, deciding on whether it would be better to just leave it at that.

Shimizu was _mostly _covered. But the sweet young woman couldn't leave the cold Austrian climate to freeze her favorite musician's precious fingers. The ones that made glorious music dance on the strings of his cello.

Fuyuumi Shoko reaches her own musical fingers to take hold of his limp forearm, re-tucking it into the sheet. Feeling successful, she goes over to the other side, copying the same procedure. Her eyes gaze down upon his lovely features and she can't help herself from touching a real live angel.

"Sweet dreams, Keiichi." She whispers, tenderly stroking his forehead's errant curls aside.

"Shoko-san?" Shimizu's eyes slowly flutter open.

"Oh! Shimizu-kun! I am s-so-sorry I woke you up. I was just trying to -" The flustered girl searches for words to cover her embarrassment as his warm fingers lace into her trembling ones.

"It's all right, Shoko. I was just with you in my dreams. We were playing our song. So perfectly...Listen with me..." Lifting one arm of his headphone for her to share, Shimizu's fingers laced with hers gently tug her closer. Entranced, Fuyuumi complies with his sweet wishes, lying beside him and leaning her head to his, Shimizu sleepily placing the other speaker of the headphone over her ear to hear the music as well. Only at ease when she's with him, Fuyuumi rests her peaceful head upon his warm chest and Shimizu's contented eyes flutter open as his other hand loosely reaches towards Heaven it seemed, with his heart's muse at his ethereal side.

She rests her eyes against his soft pillow chest, not wishing to disturb her beautiful angel's happy dreams but knowing she too could live inside them, where beautiful music played unfettered and unending. Fuyuumi imagines herself part of them now, adrift in his melodious soft golden glow.

Exhausted herself from the long trip, she too drifts to sleep at his peaceful side, their hands still entwined.

Too absorbed in his own affairs, Kaji didn't even notice her presence until later that night. when Mori comes to retrieve her shy missing roommate from the boys' room, and finds her sound asleep beside her boyfriend, their ears and hearts still connected by love's music.


	19. Chapter 19 - Table for Two

**Chapter 19: "Table for Two"**

The rest of the students had similarly become acquainted with their various double rooms. Yunoki had booked a few more on the sixth floor of the Grand Hotel Wien, but Amou and all of the other girls had opted to share a double room with a friend, with the excuse that they'd be lonely in a strange new city without a fellow 'sister' with a friendly ear to chat with.

The remaining six boys agreed on the plan and Hihara was eager to welcome long-missed Yunoki for a best buddy 'camp-out'. Of course, Yunoki was obliging as ever.

"We can hang out! It'll be fun!" Hihara said, happy as a lark.

That left Tsuchiura, Kaji, Shimizu, and Etou. Etou was first to speak and opt for big, strong, silent type Tsuchiura, if he had to hang out with anyone. So Kaji got stuck with Shimizu, literally. He found himself having to cart the younger boy around most of the time, but friendly Kaji was game.

Kira and Tsuzuki Mari had their own private rooms each, as the Director felt some responsibility for the teens' welfare and saw to it that they were all invited to dine at Un Kai, the famous Japanese restaurant located on the seventh floor of their hotel, just above them.

But tuckered out from jet lag, most of the travelers declined the offer, opting instead for all expense paid, courtesy of Yunoki-senpai, room service. So when Kira Akihiko finds himself the only occupant of the booked for sixteen table, he's more than a little embarrassed. Especially since celebrity Head Chef Sakai, had personally come to the Seiso Academy Director's table to greet him and welcome him to Vienna.

Kira found himself losing both face and patience with his proffered group of fourteen Japanese students, who failed to even show up. Tapping an annoyed finger on the table, Kira coldly gazes out the seventh floor window over the darkened city, feeling just as dark inside.

_Children...I despise children..._ Kira thinks sourly, at being stood up by his own students. Despite some of their ages, he still considered the young 'riff raff' children. _Even my own nephew! That boy should know better by now!_

"I'm sorry for being late, Director Kira, but I had an important phone call to deal with. Do excuse me." Tsuzuki Mari comes into the five-star restaurant and was surprised to find the dark man alone at the large, hibachi table. No meal was served yet and no one familiar was around but they two. "Where are the students?" Mari asks as she uncomfortably sits across from the silent man.

"Who knows." Kira answers, uninformedly, with a disdainful eye as he sips his third martini.

"Well, I can tell you that I've been assured that Hino Kahoko and Amou Nami are safe and well cared for. They went to visit Ousaki Shinobu and Tsukimori Len this afternoon, and didn't realize the time until it was much too late for travel. So Mrs. Heifmann, the landlady at House Doubling where they reside, at Ousaki-kun's instruction, has accomodated our two young ladies in a spare apartment. Ousaki-kun recommends the woman highly, so we need not be anxious for them." Mari retells her extensive phone call with her long-time crush, Ousaki Shinobu.

"Then we are in her debt." Kira replies coolly to the tale, offhandedly. He was not the type to overly worry or mollycoddle students who were only marginally under his care. Both Hino Kahoko and Amou Nami were already of college age and no longer attending Seiso.

"What of the other students? I believe I saw them all go to their rooms soon after we arrived."

"I...can go and check on them if you'd-" Mari's brow knits at his question. She felt quite the mother hen to this wandering brood, although she was only a few years older than most, and the same age as Ousaki, who was twenty-two.

"Nevermind. They all must've opted for room service. It appears we've been stood up." Kira says with a resigned smile when Master Chef Sakai comes to greet Kira's one new guest.

"Stood up?" Sakai looks confused from Kira's cold face to Mari's elegant one. "You appear to have at least one beautiful young ojosan who still admires you, at your side." The chef bows his head at the blushing Mari, as he turns to return to the kitchen, giving her an encouraging grin and conspiratorical raised eyes.

"Admires? No, wait, Sakai-san. You've got this all wrong." Kira protests the romantic insinuation from this total stranger.

"We're just colleagues..." Kira trails off, seeing it useless since the man to convince was already gone back to his kitchen. An awkward pause ensues when Mari decides to break the ice.

"He's not wrong."

Kira's normally slit small eyes pop wide open.

"I do admire you." She smiles, but the way she said it made Kira's already palpitating heart sink. "You're a wonderful Director of the school to care so much for your students- even those who have graduated-to sponsor to bring them all here to this wonderful place." Tsuzuki Mari glances around at the Grand Hotel Wien's restaurant opulence.

"And it is the chance of a lifetime for the students. Some of them would never be able to travel to Vienna on their own, and I think that every serious musician should seen the musical splendors of Vienna at least once in their life."

"Hmph!" Kira mutters at the ungrateful wretches abandonment of him, despite his 'kindness.'

"Just imagine! Flying every one of them-past, present, friends and even relatives-all at your own personal expense. You truly are a warm-hearted person, Kira Akihiko. It's no wonder the Fata have blessed you and your school." Mari says proudly.

"Well..." Kira was about to protest the compliment, neither erstwhile students nor annoying Fata being his favorite subjects, when something in Mari's pure, belief-filled eyes made him change his mind. "Thank you, Mari." His eyes and voice both soften as does his mood. Kira suddenly didn't feel as angered as he was not ten minutes ago.

"Shall we order dinner here or do you prefer the sushi bar, a private table, since we appear to be on our own?" Kira offers, no longer wishing to leave the restaurant or pity himself with a few more drinks than he usually allowed.

"Private table, please." Mari smiles, knowing that the man beside her would feel more at ease at the cozier, more private smaller table than here at a large, empty hibachi table for a scant two diners.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Sakai-san. But the lady prefers a table tonight." Kira stands, cordially making his excuses to the waiting chef who was a famed master of the art of the hibachi.

"Then please allow me to serve you my own personal dinner specialty, the 'Sakai Sekai'!" The helpful chef leads the couple to the dark sushi bar area. He shoos away the normal chef, to take over, just for Kira and Mari.

"Two 'Sakai Sekais' for my distinguished guest who came all the way from Nihon to visit their new friend, Sakai! The first course is for the lovely lady." He places an entree of cherries and other exotic fruits on a small plate. The generous and friendly food master made up for being 'stood up' by the students in spades. Kira even spares a smile to his companion, putting on a pleasant face to the world for once in his life as they enjoy a quiet repast together, just the two of them.


	20. Chapter 20 - Moonlight Serenade

**Chapter 20: "Moonlight Serenade"**

"Are you awake, Amou-san?" Hino Kahoko whispers to the loudly snoring girl lying on the bed beside her, still obviously asleep. Hino, fingers interlaced between her ever-present necklace, waits for a minute or two before making a move.

It certainly had been the most exciting day of her life, and she, unlike Amou, wasn't in the least bit sleepy.

_My friends! My good, good friends, all planned this for us! I don't know how you managed it all-getting us here, everyone meeting again-a prestigious concert to play at the week's end of this wondrous, amazing journey, on top of it all! I know you played a big part in making this possible for us, Amou-san._

Hino smiles through tears of gratitude and joy directed at the girl beside her, who doubtlessly, had the greatest hand in planning and executing this top secret mission of hers.

_For Len and I..._

Hino's smile turns to a different inspirational source. Tsukimori Len's first look at her in Vienna-his first smile at her in Vienna, his first kiss...

She was far to deliriously in love to ever be able to sleep again for the rest of her life! Hino almost giggles at the silly, girlish thoughts as she, quiet as a church mouse, climbs from the comfy double bed of Mrs. Heifmann's guest room.

In a borrowed pair of slippers, Hino slips into a borrowed dressing gown, covering her borrowed silk nightshirt. It's white flannel with blue prints old-fashioned design made Hino look more like an elderly granny than a pretty young chicky. But it was warm and clean and the only spare the kindly septagenarian old lady had for a girl.

Poor Amou had to wear an extra pair of Ousaki's offered pajamas. She looked rather comical when they had changed-with sleeves too long and pant legs having to be folded up so many times that she looked super 'SD.'

_Pitter, pitter, pitter, patter_

Hino patters over to her cell phone hiding inside her coat pocket jacket, hanging on the hook behind the closet door. She then carefully goes inside the squeaky old door of the closet, so even her quiet texting wouldn't bother Amou's sleep. (Though from the sound of her deep snoring, Hino doubted even a monster truck revving its engine would wake her.)

[hi there, tskimri-kn...r u asleep?] Hino sends the short text, holding her breath, every passing second seeming an eternity.

[No. Are you?]

She bites her lip, not to squeal with joy. Hino smiles at the strange question asked and laughs at the even funnier one, right on its tail.

[Ignore that.]

[I miss u] [I miss you.]

They had both written the same text at the same time, as if reading one another's mind.

[Are you comfortable?] Tsukimori was obviously concerned, as if she was not just one room away in the same building.

[ys, thnk u] Hino smiles, sitting on the floor and hugging her knees to her chest for warmth.

[How is Amou-san?] He asks politely, running out of things push-buttons could express.

[snoring] She texts honestly, peeking out the closet door to the bedroom's only other occupant.

[U R fun-E]

Hino breaks out in full-fledged laugh. She stifles it in her cute little nightcap that Mrs. Heifmann gave her '_to caver you vee leetle heads from ze cold_.'

Hino was not able to text a reply-her giggle was so overpowering as she imagines by-the-book Tsukimori Len (whom she never even imagined could text) attempting some slang abbreviations like a texting pro, but failing miserably.

When a soft knock comes to the bedroom door outside her closet 'office,' Hino stops her giggling. She was sure she had awoken somebody she shouldn't have, like kind old Mrs. Heifmann, who was about to bang down her door any second and stop that giggling racket in the middle of the night!

Hino glances at her cell phone for the exact time, realizing it was moot, because she hadn't yet adjusted it since she left Japan. But she does see text after urgent text coming from Tsukimori-kun. She just then realized, in her laughing fit, she had forgotten to write him.

[R U all right?]

[R U still there?]

[Kahoko, are you all right?]

[Answer me, please.]

[Kahoko, I'm coming!]

Hino's eyes pop out of their sockets at Tsukimori's overly concerned messages. It was as if he was panicking.

_Just because I quit writing for two whole minutes? Am I that important to him?_

Knock, Knock, Knock

_Guess so_.

Hino leaves her closet cubby hole to open the bedroom door to whoever it was, though she had a sneaking suspicious already just who it was.

"Kahoko!"

Hino felt both quite loved and quite foolish as she opens the door and Tsukimori throws his arms around her, covered from head to toe in flowery striped granny flannel. After the first few seconds of glorious giddy shock at his embrace, the next ones were filled with Hino's horror at him, of all people, seeing her in such dowdy, unattractive garb.

_I must look terrible! And he looks so dashing..._

Hino can't help but notice how suave and debonair Tsukimori looked in his pale blue pajamas, and how soft and silky they felt against her skin and...

"Oh!" Hino cries out, pulling back from his chest, causing him even more worry to come to his brow. "I must look a sight in this cap!" Her vanity finally got the better of her. Her voice was well above a whisper as first Amou sits straight up in the bed, rubbing her eyes over lengthy sleeves at the sudden noise.

Then, Mrs. Heifmann, in all her own becapped and granny nightie glory, comes tromping through the side door, connecting her suite with the girls' guest room, anxiety in her aged eyes and a hammer in her knobby hands.

Lastly, Ousaki comes rushing out into the hallway, pulling on his own dressing gown to see what all the clatter was about. "Tsukimori-kun? Hino-san?" He questions the incriminating hugging couple as he bumps into them in the hallway.

More than one head peers out from their own apartments on the same floor with trepidation, until Ousaki calms them down with a gentle smiling handwave and a soft "Sorry, sorry..." to their neighbors.

"I am so sorry, everyone! It's all my fault." Hino apologizes as Ousaki leads them all into the guest room. Ousaki goes to the confused Mrs. Heifmann and puts a reassuring arm around her shoulders, though first he had removed the hammer gripped firmly in her bony hands. (_You never do know who's prowling about at zis time of ze night!_)

"Please forgive me, Mrs. Heifmann. I didn't mean to wake everyone up." Hino leaves Tsukimori's arms to give the old lady a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Yes, well, it's late and we can all do the explaining tomorrow at one of Mrs. Heifmann's delicious breakfasts." Ousaki expertly appeases the elderly lady, who he helps back to her room. But before she goes, she stops in the connecting doorway and turns to say:

"Your garlfriend is very funny, Len." with a thick accent and a wave goodnight.

Once Ousaki delivers the lady back to her room, and closes the door, Hino and Tsukimori, once again lost in each other's eyes at the inside joke only they two could share, both do all they can not to break into laughter. For moral support, the giddy with love pair return to embrace yet again for '_Fun E_' was what caused all the trouble in the first place.

"I've never seen either of them like this before." Astonished at his roommate's behavior, Ousaki comments when he comes back to the room along with a confiscated hammer, at the silly way the two lovebirds were stifling giggles, hugging each other for calmness, while they swayed to a tune all their own, they only they seemed to be able to hear, ringing out under the moonlit night.

"It must be the fault of the moon." Amou groggily contemplates as she points out the window above, when a glasses-less Ousaki nearly crashes into her bedpost. Then Amou jumps up to aid the 'blind' man, and she nearly trips on her own overly long pajama pants. Ousaki catches her fall instead, and so they too were dancing in the lunacy of this 'funny' moonlit serenade.


	21. Chapter 21 - The Dark Side of the Moon

**Chapter 21: "The Dark Side of the Moon"**

Back at the hotel, plan B recipient, Ayano Takashina was having a similar sleepless night of pure happiness. Not only did Azuma-sama not despise her change of dress and behavior - but he had taken her in his arms kissed her, too!

It was the first kiss he- or anyone for that matter - had given the shy girl and she was delirious with joy, feeling all her hard efforts and courage for this transformation makeover were worthwhile now. She was fluttering around the high rise hotel room in such a state. Miyabi did all she could to calm the ebony haired girl down as they prepared for bed.

"But - Azuma-sama kissed me! Azuma-sama must love me!" Ayano declares, wearing the little lacey lolita nightie the more risque adventurous Girl Power members had chosen for her, around the room, singing to herself and humming with innocent pride.

"I know, I know. But Big Brother might not like -" Miyabi knew her older sibling well enough by now - she thought.

_Knock knock._

And in he comes, the youngest of her three brothers never did wait on formality when it came to Miyabi. They were close, in spite of his strangeness at times. But sometimes, Miyabi felt it was as if he was a different person than the one she grew up with, entirely.

"Azuma-sama!" Ayano cries out for her joy, tripping lightly to his side and hugging on the sleeve of his turtleneck. Yunoki give the girl a cool raised brow look.

_And this was going to be such one of those times, _Miyabi could just feel it in her bones.

"I just thought you would like your older brother tuck you in, like when we were young, Miyabi. You must be quite anxious in this great big hotel, just two lone females." The dark tone in his voice was lower than his usual polite elocution. Miyabi was a little more than scared when her Nii-san was in such a mood, so she chooses not to object when his signaling hand points to the bed and just walks away from Ayano's adoration without greeting nor smile.

"Yes, Big Brother. I was just about ready." Miyabi quickly finishes, pulling her hair brush rapidly through her curly, unruly mass of purple hair - into the already rumpled bed, hopping in like a toddler and awaiting her sibling's 'tucking in'. He does it with not as much warmth as he does harsh flare, Miyabi was sure she was going to have nightmares about his evil chucklings as he does. When he finishes, he turns his dark attention to the other girl in the room, as she obediently, patiently waits for her turn, perched on the edge of her own bed.

_Poor little girl._

Ayano, on the other hand, was blissfully unaware of her fiancé's mood swings. She believed he was the same, gentlemanly, loving considerate man with that oh-so-sugary voice and congenial smile, who had escorted both she and Miyabi to this wonderful hotel room right beside his and Hihara's, not two hours ago.

"Come, Ayano." Yunoki orders rigidly. Miyabi shudders in her bed, pulling the covers up over her head and fear of the cold entering the room that wasn't just the dropping Vienna night temperatures.

Yunoki leads the nightgowned girl from her perch with an offered hand that he quickly drops once they had walked into the outer sitting room. After seating her on a French styled armchair, he turns his back on the girl completely, wandering over to the ornate fireplace mantle and leaning on it.

"Azuma-sama? Have I done something to offend you?" Unsure Ayano breaks the uncomfortable eerie silence that Yunoki cast over the room, her giddy happiness of a few minutes ago replaced by cold uncertainty.

"Tell me, Ayano," he states suddenly, without even turning to face her, his indifferent voice low and strange to her ears.

"What is the opposite of 'Up'?" The question confuses her, so she shakes her long-haired head dumbly.

"That would be 'Down'." Yunoki answers his own question with pursed lips.

"How about the opposite of 'Good'? Do you know that?" His deep voice asks again, puzzling Ayano, but she dares to speak in his aloof waiting silence.

"Evil?" She softly replies to the kindergarten grade question directed at her.

"Very good, Ayano." Dark Yunoki puts on his best teacher good Yunoki voice, but the marked change made it all the more terrifying, along with the wicked smile curling his lips as he turns to face her. Shivering uncontollably by now, she was almost in tears at his confusing harsh words.

"And finally, what's the opposite of 'No', Ayano?" Yunoki asks, his eyes distant as he sits at her bedside, placing a cool hand on her cheek that runs through her long strands of freshly brushed hair.

"'Yes.'" She responds in a daze, captured in his teasing dark eyes with her teary ones.

"So there's your answer, you little idiot." He states with an aloof air, letting the last strands of her ebony mane slip through his cool fingers, then seizes her shivering chin in his right hand, eyes taunting hers facetiously as he suddenly stands.

"I'll bid you goodnight, then."

"And do be assured, I'll be just one door away." And with that blessed assurance in his fake oh-so-dripping sweetness voice, Yunoki sweeps back out the door, just as he came in.

Ayano was stunned for a second, staring after him. But the next second when he's gone in, she erupts in a mass of tears, turning to her bed and throwing herself hard down upon it, her ephemeral happy heart shattered like proverbial glass.


	22. Chapter 22 - Practice Makes Perfect

**Chapter 22: "Practice Makes Perfect"**

"Good morning." Tsuzuki Mari pleasantly addresses the group of musicians and students gathered in the large conference room/musical practice room that the Grand Hotel Wien graciously agreed to Kira's request for usage.

"The management of this Grand Hotel has graciously consented to anyone in our group who wants to use this sound-proof room for practice and meetings. They were delighted to hear that we'd be performing at the Vienna State Opera House, just across the street, so they kindly extended this courtesy." Mari announces to the nine Seiso alumni present in the said room, as they were busily setting up their instruments in places around the room.

Mari was grateful for the many music stands already there, as she helps adjust one shorter for the smallest musician, Fuyuumi Shoko.

Shimizu pulls out his cello with a caress and begins to tune it right away. He immediately starts playing until, to his welltrained ear, his cello was perfetly on pitch, time and tone color, in rhythm with the piece the group had decided upon to play on the Opera house stage. Shimizu so loved music that it was an essential part of him, and perfecting his sound's harmonics came second nature.

"Where is Hino-kun? Or Tsuchiura-kun for that matter?" Kira Akihiko asks when he enters a room full of noisy violin/cello/clarinet/viola tuning.

"Sakimoto-san kindly offered to bring the girls some change of clothes and Tsuchiura-kun is escorting her to the House Doebling. It's just a few blocks down." Mari explains this morning's goings-on to the impatient Director.

"Well I hope they get back soon. We need to begin ensemble practice immediately. We only have one week until the performance and I won't have them disappoint me before all of Vienna." Kira shakes his head in worry.

"Don't worry, Director Kira. I'm sure all the students will do their best." Mari exchanges nods with a graceful Fuyuumi holding her clarinet, a grinning Kaji plucking his viola and a groggy Shimizu adjusting his cello for the 5th time that ends with a silly grin up at her.

"They had better." Kira comments sourly at the sugary trio, hands on hips, turning to his nephew as Etou Kiriya walks up from behind to stand beside him.

"I'll make sure of it, Akihiko-san." The confidence the boy had was commendable. Kira found some solace in Etou's precise playing of at least his part of Mendelsson's 'Violin Concerto' when the wine-haired colored teen swiftly pulls his bow intensely across his violin strings with the crescendo note of the score to the embodiment of a consummate professional.

"Thank you, Tsuzuki-san, Kiriya." The Director finds a smile come over his face, despite his anxiety, every time he heard his beloved 'Violin Concerto' played in such musical perfection.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"'Hotel Do-e-bu-ringu?' Is this the place?" Tsuchiura pauses in his long stride abruptly before the tall building, phonetically reading the small gold plaque with the embossed European lettering clumsily.

"Yes, I _huff_ think _huff_ so...Slow down, Ryo! Where's the fire?!" Mizue tries to catch her breath, following the lead of the brawny young man who was barreling down the Vienna avenue.

"Amou and Hino are waiting for their clothes." The virile young man in Tsuchiura did not want to go there-his mind kept glossing over thinking about 'girls and changing clothes' generally.

"Yeah, but..." Mizue had volunteered to gather what the night wanderers needed when Tsuchiura 'heroically' offered to bring them their stuff. Mizue was holding her own bag of toiletries to share with the two girls, as Ryo carried the small suitcase with their change of clothes, across the street, at breakneck speed.

"Hino's gotta get back for practice to start. Right? Everyone's waiting." He explains in a frustrated voice, as if he, especially, was in a hurry to start practice.

Mizue wonders for a moment. She never before had seen her childhood friend so worked up about anything-or in such a hasty hustle.

_I mean...the veins in his neck are popping! Golly!_

Tsuchiura quickly strides up the path leading to the front entrance of the tall, white stone edifice and rings the doorbell several times impatiently, until an elderly lady opens it.

"We're here to see Hino-oh, never mind. Can you take us to Tsukimori Len's apartment?" Tsuchiura decides to cut to the chase, when the old lady cranes her ear to understand the foreign eigo speaking tongue of this harried stranger.

"Are you friends of his?" The old lady inquires, inquisitively, blocking the doorway with a wary eye on him, through her thick, Viennese accent.

"Friends? Well..." Tsuchiura sees Tsukimori Len's cool, unfriendly face in his mind for a second, as the word stews inside, a scowl soon adorning his rugged features.

"Yes! He's an old schoolmate of Tsukimori-san, and Hino-san and Amou-san's." Mizue pokes her head in beside him.

"We have some changes of clothes for them." She holds up her bag before the woman with a smile.

"Hino-san? Ohhhhh! Kahoko! Oh! Any friends of Kahoko are good friends of mine! Welcome to the House Doebling." The wary, wrinkly face turns into a wreath of wrinkled smiles. She puts her arm on each of the young people's shoulders and warmly ushers them in.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

_Meanwhile, upstairs, moments ago..._

Tsukimori Len had been admiring the red haired girl for some time now. For far too many seconds far too long he had stared at her- but he couldn't help himself. After Ousaki and Amou had abandoned the pair earlier this morn for the scenic outdoor tour 'Shinobunny' spoke so highly of, once the bushy tailed early risers got some hot tea and crumpets in them to fuel their excursion, the pale blue haired young man was caught in nothing short of entrancement.

So that left Kahoko to her own devices on this fine morn, as the girl sheepishly, self-consciously, nibbles on a fresh Vienna roll Ousaki had fetched for their quartet's breakfast impromptu. Her eyes eagerly peer up from her teacup, every now and then with a nervous giggle, to see if he were still watching her in the unflattering state of undress she unfortunately sees looking back at her in the reflection of the good landlady's silver service platter.

But, even with her vivid crimson hair slightly bed-tussled and her makeshift nightwear somewhat awry, this glimpse of Hino Kahoko, first thing in the morning, was the most gorgeous sight Len had ever - or would ever- see gracing his shared flat's bedroom.

It was as if the sun rose just for her this morning - and her radiance stole his breath away.

He simply couldn't take his eyes off her from the first moment her slippered feet danced across the floor to him and he placed his extra pastel blue silk shirt around her shoulders. Len had so very much to say to his love absent from him for too long...if only the time was right...maybe he could express his desired sentiment properly.

"A-hem, yes..." Yet the inept boy still stumbles over words under her intense gaze back at him.

"You must be chilled in this early morning wearing just that. Please allow me, Kahoko." Len tries to disguise his countenance from belying any of the emotions coursing through his young frame as he retrieves his dark gray jacket and utilizes able hands and fingers to wrap the long sleeved coat around her pale blue silk night shirted form from behind her back

Kahoko shivers at the thrill of revelling in the feeling of her adored one's much anticipated touch on her eager body at last.

How many mornings has Kaho dreamt of this very propitious scene?

She presses his hands closer to her, entrapping one long-fingered extremity to her hips for a few blissful seconds of unmitigated bliss.

Len perceives Kaho's immediate hunger for his embrace, his yet uncaptured hand ably buttoning up the jacket around her chest area with delicate care. He then permits his capable arm the liberty of draping back over the other until crisscrossed arms enveloped Kaho entirely, Len enjoying this pleasant feeling prodigiously indeed. He holds her now as he would his precious violin, cradling her lithe form to him with just the correct combination degree of gentleness and strength to achieve its most cherished music, Kahoko's sighing murmurs humming softly melodic as the pair gently sway to one another's rhythm.

"Oh, Len. Say this isn't a dream." Kaho whispers in song, the look on her features blissfully content.

"This isn't a dream, Kahoko." With his voice so exquisitely breathy, Len responds in kind as he nuzzles his head down to hers lovingly.

Both destiny-bound lovers fantasize they could stay like this, just the two of them together forever in each other's embrace, for a lifetime...

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"Len! Kahoko! You have visitors!"

That is, until their gregarious landlady bellows up with a loud volume that her tiny, fragile frame concealed.

And seconds later, without so much as a knock, Tsuchiura Ryotaro swings open the door of the room at the top of the stairs only to see his old rival standing there, bold as brass, pressing Hino to himself in a compromising position, with the girl even sporting the man's (whose arms were draped luxuriously about her) night shirt and jacket .

"Hino?" Tsuchiura makes a dour face at the suspicious scene, and Tsukimori instantly unravels himself from Kaho. Clearing his throat, abashed, he turns his back to shield his reddening face in pretense of occupying himself with pouring tea and buttering a few obligatory scones for the arriving visitors to his flat.

"Tsuchiura-kun! Sakimoto-san!" Innocent Hino seemed as happy as a clam though, not seeming the least bit phased by being caught tromping about in old lady slippers and a man's silk jammies-not to mention Tsukimori's jacket slung over it all.

"We've brought you some things." After missing the damning incident of the moment before due to some chit-chat with Mrs. Heifman on the step platform, Mizue pleasantly calls in, tugging on Tsuchiura's sulky arm to show the case he was carrying as well.

"Thanks!" Hino smiles brightly, though a tad chagrined to vacate her Len's silk nightshirt and jacket's warmth, as Ryo and Len glare at one another openly over the teaset service.

"Where's Nami-san?" Blithely ignorant of any tension so thick between Tsuchiura and Tsukimori she could cut it with a knife, Mizue asks of the missing individual she expected to be present in the man's bedroom so early in the morning keeping Hino company.

"And Ousaki-senpai?" Tsuchiura's peevish eyes slit in even greater suspicion as he walks the length of the two men's shared apartment and finds only one guy present, with only one bed unmade.

_That means, one bed slept in. Tsukimori's bedroom. With only Hino, in her nightie. No Ousaki-senpai...No Amou...Anywhere to be seen...Hmmm..._

"They went out for a walk into the city. You know Amou-san! She was so excited to have a look around, sightseeing, to take photos of early morning in Vienna." Hino says, offering the two the cup of tea Len started, as if she was already mistress of this bachelor pad.

"That sounds like a nice idea! Doesn't it, Ryo? I've been dying to see the '_Beautiful Blue Danube_' since I was a little girl and read about it in a book. Let's go out later and-" Mizue starts to bubble over, eager to tour the Old World herself. It was, after all, the inspiration of so many of the writers, poets and artists she admired.

"I'll be too busy at practice." Tsuchiura cuts off her wistful plans with a crashing, regardless thud. Mizue's face and heart both sink into the teacup that Hino had just handed her. She stirs it mechanically with the spoon.

Hino shoots Tsuchiura a nasty look, not imagining why he was always so cold to his childhood sweetheart. She had high hopes for the two of them, someday.

"Come help me get changed, please, Sakimoto-san." Hino says, wanting to comfort Mizue but not knowing how. At least getting her away from the big galoot for a few minutes of girl-talk, might help.

"Yes, Kahoko was explaining," Tsukimori was blithely unaware of any problems passing between his guests, "that Director Kira has arranged for the Seiso graduates to play a special concert at the Opera House. It's good of you, Kaji-kun, and Kahoko, to come back to accompany Shimizu-kun and Etou-kun for the Violin Concerto performance." Tsukimori directs this at Tsuchiura, who smiles wryly.

"Did 'Kahoko' tell you **all** that **this **morning?" Tsuchiura's nineteen-year-old male mind was bent on believing that Hino had spent the night with this lucky blue devil.

"Yes." Tsukimori answers innocently, cocking his somewhat naive head at the strange query.

"And did she tell you how she's been feeling since you've been gone, too?" Tsuchiura was in confrontation mode now. Tsukimori slits his eyes in response, not understanding why the green-haired man had turned aggressive.

"How has she been feeling? Has Kahoko been ill?" He asks with a darkening brow at the unpalatable revelation. But Hino had not once mentioned that, in neither phone nor email.

"Not that kind of 'feeling,' you dumb stiff." Tsuchiura was bursting with anger now at Tsukimori's unknowing, blase` treatment of the girl he should treat like a-

_A queen..._

Hino and Sakimoto come back into the room just in time to halt chaos, to reveal that Hino had ditched the granny nightdress look for a quite fetching green and white mini dress with a matching scarf. It was one of the many new fashions the 'Girl Power' group had picked out for her.

This little number was Mizue's personal selection.

"How do you like it?" Hino spins around in her matching green pumps, flailing her new scarf in the air.

"I like the color." Tsuchiura honestly responds, backing away from where he was almost about to lay punishing hands on Tsukimori.

"Of course you do, silly! Sakimoto-san picked this one out for me." Then she turns to Mizue. "You girls have all been so wonderful to me." Hino smiles, squeezing Mizue's hand.

Sure, she felt a bit overdressed for the occasion, but what could she say? If it was up to the girls, it looked like she was going to be a fashion plate on this surprise Austrian vacation-and at this moment, standing before the eyes of the boy she loved, and hadn't seen in two years, Hino couldn't be happier for the chance to shine.

"Oh." came Tsuchiura's untrained, not-very-suave answer. Mizue's frown returns to her lips.

"It doesn't matter what dress you wear." Tsukimori says with an awed smile, but Mizue takes it wrong and throws her hands up in the air.

"Men! Can't you boys ever say anything right?! Let's get you to the practice, Hino-san, before these 'geniuses' think up some more 'compliments' for us." Mizue grabs Hino's arm and pulls her towards the door, pausing only to shove the suitcase into Tsuchiura's empty hands.

Hino obeys her tugs but gives Tsukimori Len a kind, farewell smile when Mizue pauses to dump the bags on Tsuchiura. It told a worried Tsukimori that she at least understood what he had meant-that she looked good to him in anything. Even an old granny nightgown.

Tsukimori smiles back, relieved, as he watches his lovely girl pass by, admiring her looks **and** her spirit. But when he manages to break away his gaze, he finds Tsuchiura staring at him coolly.

"So...do you want to come watch our practice meet? Get a chance to see the old gang, anyway." Tsuchiura concedes his frustration as anything other than feelings of anger or jealousy, as he extends an olive branch to his once-and perhaps forever-rival.

"Maybe so." Tsukimori answers, just as coolly, as he waves a hand back to Hino, when she and Sakimoto pull on their coats downstairs in the hall with Mrs. Heifmann, then leave out the door.

"Thank you for the kind offer, Tsuchiura." Tsukimori honestly shows his appreciation for all that the pianist did for Hino, with a grateful nod in the larger youth's direction, as the two men join their counterparts on the avenue.

Hino was so pleased she could pop. Attaching herself to Tsukimori's proffered arm, she hangs on him as they cross the street, romantically arm-in-arm.

Mizue gives a berated looking Tsuchiura a smirk in pity. "Come on, you big lug." She takes one of the bags, full of changed clothes, from him and walks at his side with a smile, though still feeling hurt inside.

Now that Hino was on hand, and the Seiso students were done greeting their long absent friend and senpai, Tsukimori Len, the real practice session begins.

Kira sits in the back to listen for a while, alongside Tsukimori and Sakimoto. Tsuzuki Mari flits back and forth between the individual members of the ensemble and their personal accompanists who were on call to help the five main players whenever they felt the need to go solo.

Hihara and Yunoki were employed to answer anyone's questions of timing and such. These two were only too happy to oblige. The accompanists became especially necessary when Tsuchiura quietly signals to Tsuzuki-san later in the day. Mizue notices this covert manuevering between Ryou and Tsuzuki-san from the far corner where she had been conversing with Tsukimori, sitting as audience.

Miyabi had come down just then, to inform everyone that Ayano wasn't feeling well and she'd be staying upstairs for moral support along with her too. Shouji and Mori were invaluable fill-ins for Tsuchiura. Both were talented pianists in their own rights, and Shouji played especially well, for Etou Kiriya's sake.

For no one could deny her glowing skill in his presence. There was something about the way the wine-colored boy's playing was enhanced by the timid girl's accompaniment. Perhaps it was that, when with Tsuchiura or any other male Concours member, Etou subconsciously felt he was in a competition and not an ensemble. As if the presence of another man's playing made him more exacting and aggressive than musically beautiful.

He was perfectly on key, on rhythm, on pitch-his rendition of 'Violin Concerto' precise and awe-inspiring, but there was something...so intense...that Kira didn't know how to place a finger on it. When Tsuchiura left and Etou picked up practice of the piece with Shouji instead, the playing became so much better-more heartfelt.

It was like night and day when he played with Tsuchiura than when he played with Shouji. But it wasn't something that anyone but the most well-trained ear could hear.

And Kira Akihiko and Tsukimori Len both had very well trained ears, indeed.

"What do you think of the ensemble so far, Tsukimori-kun, as an impartial student at the Vienna Conservatory?" Kira asks, though already knowing the answer himself, but seeking a second opinion.

Tsukimori Len's second opinion in particular. For it was when Tsukimori had been lead violinist, alongside Hino Kahoko, and the others, that Kira had glimpsed true musical perfection in the 'Violin Concerto.'

Tsukimori pauses before he speaks, not wanting to seem persnickety or nit-picking when it came to judging other peoples' sound. Hino Kahoko's kind heart had taught him that. But how could he ever been 'impartial' when speaking of her?

_Tell the truth..._

"Hino has decidedly improved in both style and technique." Tsukimori says honestly.

"And the others?" Kira prompts.

"Shimizu-kun and Kaji-kun are playing especially well today. I was very impressed." He thinks he found a diplomatic way out, without telling a fib.

"What about Tsuchiura's piano accompaniment earlier?" Kira goes fishing. "Before he disappeared to wherever he was off too..." He continues to mutter under his breath.

But Kira already read the answer to that on Tsukimori's straight-laced face.

"As always, exemplary." Tsukimori knew full well how skilled that particular gentleman was-a tough rival for him, in any competition.

"So where does that leave our lead violinist? Your opinion on Kiriya's interpretation of Mendelssohn's 'Violin Concerto,' if you please."

Here Tsukimori pauses again. He recalls his feelings a few minutes ago, when the ensemble was playing with Tsuchiura.

Cool, precise, aggressive.

But now, he was hearing Etou playing the same piece, with warmth, skill, and gentleness. Tsukimori feels torn to answer.

"He has great intensity and capability." He finally responds.

"I know he does." Kira muses, hoping that the erstwhile boy would show the same warm intensity and potential that he was playing now, at the actual concert.

_Just as you do at home, when you play your mother's 'Je Te Veux.'_

"Perhaps you're right. We still have a week's worth of practice to improve." Kira pulls himself out of his reverie with a nod of gratitude at Tsukimori's assessment.

_He simply has to become more comfortable in playing an ensemble with the others._

"I just hope there's enough time for a boy like him to learn, with Hino-kun and the rest as his guides." Kira says to Tsukimori.

"Don't worry, Sir." Tsukimori reassures with a gentle, knowing smile. "I did."

He compares himself in the past with the perfection-seeking youth of the present, causing Kira to return the smile, despite his own anxieties.


	23. Chapter 23 - Seiso's Boy Angel

**Chapter 23: "Seiso's Boy Angel"**

"Good practice, everyone! Go take some well-earned breaks!" Hihara pats each player on his or her back like a seasoned sports coach after his team just kicked butt on the gridiron. The weary, hungry musicians all spill out into the hotel's various recreational areas, carrying notations or sheet music to study by tomorrow morning's next practice run.

"May Fuyuumi-san, and I continue practicing?" Shimizu asks Tsuzuki Mari and Kira Akihiko still conferencing with one another after everyone had left the room, save for the dark-haired woman and the Director of the school.

"If you're both not too tired yet...I...of course, Shimizu-kun." Mari looks to Kira, and he shrugs it off as her call. Both were impressed with the sleepy cellist's indomitable stamina when it came to practicing his instrument. They both just hoped Fuyuumi Shoko could keep up with him.

"Thank you." He politely smiles, plopping back down in his seat and immediately beginning to play, his eyes closed.

"Th-th-thank you." Fuyuumi whispers in her small scaredy way. She curtsies to Kira as he passes with rolling eyes, smirking at the cute little pair.

"Do you think it's wise to leave just the two of them alone - unsupervised?" Mari worries in a quiet whisper to him as they exit. As an educator of teenagers she'd learned the first rule: 'Never leave a boy and a girl in a soundproof room far from the view of a supervisor, isolated, for long.'

"Those children?" Kira scoffs at her insinuation.

"Shimizu is 17 years old, and Fuyuumi just recently turned 17 as well." She lays down some facts as the pair walk along. "They're not children anymore."

"So?" Kira shrugs, never considering Shimizu or Fuyuumi's age an issue.

"Do you not remember what it was like to be a 17-year-old boy just coming out of adolescence yourself?" Tsuzuki-san raises her one eyebrow questioningly at him.

"I do." He gives her an equally raised brow.

"But I wasn't a Shimizu Keiichi when I was seventeen, either." Kira puts the utmost trust in 'Seiso's Boy Angel' as the blonde was well known to be throughout the school's hallowed halls. Kira shares a smile with Mari as he escorts her to the restaurant area with not a worry in his head of the cellist and the clarinetist left alone, to sing their music to each other, even deep into the night.

"Shoko-san?" She was called back down to the reality she had been lifted from, upon his cello's ethereal strings.

"Yes, Shimizu-kun?" Fuyuumi responds to the blonde boy as he ceases to play, staring at her closed-eyed reverie instead.

"Do you believe in angels?" What a strange question from the pious, little good Christian boy to ask of her. Fuyuumi never claimed to be a theologian herself, though, she never doubted their existance.

"Why yes, I believe I do." She speaks the truth from her heart as Fuyuumi nervously answers with a soft giggle. But she never really truly did feel silly when she spoke of any subject with those blue blue eyes of his upon hers.

"Oh, good." Shimizu states simply, then goes back to playing his cello. Fuyuumi cocks her head at Shimizu's query.

He plays for a while, that peaceful smile ever present on his beautiful face as if, when his bow moved across the strings, he traveled to a new wondrous place along with the rising notes.

"Angels have been recorded in the Bible as mainly holy messengers." Out of nowhere, Shimizu recites matter-of-factly when speaking of the Book he enjoyed reading most of all.

"Oh, yes." Fuyuumi tries to engage in a conversation of this interesting subject her cellist introduced. "I like Gabriel the best, because he's the angel who announced Baby Jesus' coming."

"Oh, what a coincidence. Me too." Fuyuumi states, then flushes under his gaze.

Shimizu smiles at her blushing face sincerely. Fuyuumi never did get over how much of an angel he looked and sounded himself, especially when he smiled.

"I think that the wicked angels, who were sent down to the fiery pit of everlasting brimstone along with Lucifer when they challenged God, try to lead us astray or frighten us so we don't live up to our true potential that God designed each of us for here on earth." Shimizu was becoming quite the theologian himself, his constant research of the classical music often brought him to Heaven's higher calling.

"I believe each of us have been assigned someone who loves us, who's gone Home before us, to be like an angel watching over every moment of our lives." Shimizu reverently closes his eyes, as inspired fingers dance easily over his cello strings to the music the Angels helped him compose. His long lashes flutter open to meet Fuyuumi's, as the tenderhearted girl once again finds herself in tears, as if Shimizu Keiichi's soul was trying to speak directly to hers by way of his cello's music.

_Perhaps God gave me mine who I could see on earth already, because I do frighten rather easily._ Mocking her own failings, Fuyuumi blinks back the tears. She was certain angelic Shimizu was Heaven sent and Heaven bound some day.

She watches in awe how lightly his fingers trip over the strings as if they were moving by themselves, spiritually inspired by the gentle touch of His Hand.

"Shoko-san?" Shimizu says her name, his eyes still closed as he has no need for the handwritten sheet music placed on the sill before him; for it was a beautiful piece he had written for her, his heart's 'Muse.'

"Yes, Shimizu-kun?" She answers with a smile on her lips, replacing the tears, as he puts down his bow and pats the bench seat next to him invitingly.

"Play with Keiichi, Shoko." He says his own name, his way of asking the shy girl call him it again.

"Yes... Keiichi." Fuyuumi melts under his smiling sleepy gaze. She sits back to back with him so both face the music stands, feeling completely at peace. When she feels his warm soft shoulder lean back to her, her clarinet rings out true clear notes. Her instrument only sang like this, when they were alone together, playing music like she felt with no other,** feeling** music as only his true heart could duet with her.

And not just any music, their music. Never would Fuyuumi tire of its gentle sound for she loved it so. She lifts her clarinet to her lips as her notes respond to Shimizu's cello's beckoning questions. The two instruments soulfully seek one another out and speak to each other with a perfect blossoming love, as the Lord Himself blesses the pure couple's future with gentle joy and fulfillment in eternal devotion assigned as one another's partner in life and 'guardian angel' long into the hereafter's 'Heaven Sent Breeze'...


	24. Chapter 24 - A Cry For Help

**Chapter 24: "A Cry For Help"**

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Who's there?!" Yunoki Miyabi's high-pitched voice cries out from her hotel room door rather ferociously.

"It's just me, Miyabi-chan! You know...Kazuki?" Hihara hoped her anger wasn't directed at him. He went over in his head if he had recently previously put his foot in his mouth concerning her, but nothing came to mind.

"Oh! Kazuki! Come in, hurry!" A relieved Miyabi whispers sharply as she pulls the door open and pulls Hihara in by the arm, in a matter of seconds. She then sticks her head out, looking back and forth down the hall, as if in hiding from a crazed insane criminal on the loose.

"Miyabi-chan? What is it?" Hihara asks, in worry, joining her whispers of anxiety.

"I don't want _**him**_ to hear us!" She whispers back, in fearful trepidation.

"Him?" Hihara whispers, his brows furrowed.

"You know! **Him**!" Miyabi was too frazzled to answer in complete sentences.

"Oh, yeah..." Hihara feigns understanding, nodding as he follows her into the room.

"Who?" Hihara gives up trying to look smart.

"Big brother!" Miyabi retorts, then begins trembling.

"Why, Miyabi-chan? Has he...been acting strange with you?" Hihara asks, recalling how weird Yunoki acted at practice, first with over the top sugary-ness, and then easily being angered to darkness.

His own knowledge of Yunoki Azuma now gave him insight into Miyabi's strange behavior.

"No, not with me exactly...but...I heard him with Ayano-chan." Miyabi was almost in tears at the memory of the previous night.

"Ohhh." Hihara bites his lip. "How is she?" He asks hopefully. But Miyabi's face spoke volumes.

"Terrible! She hasn't gotten out of bed all day! She's been crying all night, too." Miyabi's voice and body were both shaking. She somehow felt betrayed by the brother she loved most in the world. "It was as if I didn't know him anymore! He's so changed-so cruel to Ayano-chan!"

Hihara goes to hug her with a comforting smile. "Don't worry, I'm here now. I'm here." He hugs her small frame to his warm chest, trying to think what to say to help her calm down.

"He was so different from the gentle, kind brother I know and love..." She weeps into Hihara's chest. This seemed to be becoming quite routine for the pair.

"Shh, Miyabi-chan...shhhh...Kazuki's here." Hihara strokes her hair, realizing how well she fit into his arms.

"Just don't pay any attention to him when he's like that, Miyabi-chan. He just acts that way when he's all mixed up inside. Somehow...I think it's his way of dealing with bad things he doesn't like." Hihara says in his quite 'analytical way.'

"It's like when you and me cry when we're upset. You can't help it, either, right?" Hihara offers the plummy girl a tissue from the box on the table with a sympathetic pair of eyes.

Miyabi shakes her head up and down in agreement, dabbing her eyes hard.

"Neither can I sometimes. See? You're just like me." Hihara smiles, though on the verge of tears himself, to see someone he cared about upset over someone else he cared about.

"Really...?" Miyabi asks. "You cry too?" She said between sniffles.

"Absolutely! Sometimes, I feel like a real baby when I can't control myself like that. But I can't stop it."

"That's just how I feel!" Miyabi's tears were turning into realization's clarity.

"Right! We need each other's shoulder to cry on every now and then, right, Miyabi-chan?"

Hihara opens both his arms wide towards Miyabi, inviting another warm hug, which the young girl takes him up on gladly.

She clutches his torso with vehement ardor, as if trying to squeeze away all the fear and sorrow this new unknown Yunoki was confusing his lttle sister with as she nearly compresses the air from the strong lungs of the kind-hearted OB..._ergh boyfriend.._.

"I need you always..." Miyabi was in a fragile, sticky state. He knew that, but it didn't mean that Hihara didn't enjoy being needed for once, his years of breath regulation in training on his trumpet coming in handy when Miyabi's squeeze power was in play.

"Good! 'Cause I'll always be here for you! Don't worry! I'll have a talk with Yunoki tomorrow and get this all straightened out. You'll see! It'll be fine tomorrow. Okay?" Hihara reassures the girl, whose hopeful eyes up at him were bright once again.

"Let's check on Ayano-chan." She states, leading him by the hand to the bedroom. She didn't want to let him go, just yet, until she was sure her friend was all right. "I think she's finally drifted to sleep." Miyabi whispers, cautiously peering in.

"Off you go, too, then. Kazuki will take care of everything tomorrow. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about this anymore. Promise?"

"I'll try." Miyabi says, looking up at Hihara with adoring, needy eyes.

"Good girl." Hihara plants a warm kiss on her cheek, until it blushes a fierce red.

"Thank you, Kazuki! I'd go crazy, if I didn't have you here with me." She hops up and plants her own kiss on Hihara's equally reddened cheek. Then, with a grateful wave, she turns into the bedroom quietly, her troubles somewhat appeased by Hihara's assurance enough for her to find rest.

_I think the same thing happened to Yunoki...a cry for help in the darkness...I hope I can find him and bring him back this time._

Hihara's smile fades, secretly worried himself as he thinks of what he has to do.

Yunoki was out and about before Hihara could say anything to him. So after a long, full morning of practice, when the rest of the group, minus a few spectators, had already adjourned for lunch, Hihara suggests to a sulky Yunoki that they go for a stroll in the city, and grab some lunch there.

Yunoki looks at him incredulously, like he was asking for a blood transplant or something drastic, rather than just his company for lunch. The death gaze and standoffish attitude coming from the indigo-haired man all morning was making everyone in the room uncomfortable, to say the least.

They were all grateful to Hihara for sticking by the sourpuss, though none would trade his place for all the sausage in Vienna. That is, except for only the most innocent, the not-all-there most of the time Shimizu Keiichi, who unbeknownst to Hihara had stayed behind to fetch a precious music pad and had woken up from his sleepy daze, long enough to say: "Lunch? I'd love to go with you and Yunoki-senpai for lunch, Hihara-senpai. I'm hungry."

Oblivious Shimizu invites himself along. Hihara was quite at a loss as to how to stop this sleepy boy from joining the supposedly private chat he planned between his two former senpai.

_Oh, well..._

Hihara shrugs his shoulder as Yunoki finally consents on the other side of him.

"I suppose, if we must." Dark Yunoki gives into Hihara's constant pleas.

"Let's go this way! No, this way! No, this way! I'm sure that crowd is lunching!" Hihara calls out, once the trio gets to the street level. When the wind whips at them in the front entrance, Hihara was glad they had their extra warm coats on, as his unruly hair and Yunoki's long strands blow in the cold breeze.

Shimizu shivers, wishing aloud how 'I should've brought my earmuffs,' though neither Hihara nor Yunoki were listening anymore.

Yunoki twists his long hair in his fingers, darkly impatient as Hihara can't decide on which much-travelled path to take.

"Look, Hihara, never mind. Since you can't make up your mind anyway, I'd rather not go anywhere." Yunoki's low voice was as scratchy as it was foreboding. "Please tell the others I wish to be left alone in my room." He coldly states, giving Hihara an unconcerned glance.

"But what about lunch, Yunoki? You have to eat..." Hihara cries out, afraid he'd both angered his best friend and let his girl down simultaneously.

But Yunoki just tosses his hair back in defiance, without even saying 'goodbye' as he disappears back into the Hotel Wien's glass sliding doors.

"What do I do now?" Hihara mutters despondently to the cold air.

"I'll still eat with you, Hihara-senpai." Shimizu smiles warmly, never catching the nuance of anything outside of his music.

_Sigh_

Now it was a despondent Hihara's turn to blindly follow whichever path Shimizu took them down, until the blonde beauty spots a Viennese bakery, and comes back out with more doughnuts and cookies than he could possibly eat.

"I bought a cookie for each of the girls and a doughnut for each of the boys." He was busily explaining, looking especially proud of the one, pretty and dainty little angel girl that he had asked the kind baker give aqua hair and a big golden yellow halo and dress with pink bows, similar to the one Fuyuumi wore at the Seiso concours all those years ago.

As for the doughnuts, he hands Hihara an orange-frosted one, with extra colorful sprinkles all over it for hair, M&Ms for eyes and candied licorice for a mouth. Hihara gazes at its bright, happy smile that he himself couldn't feel. Right now, Hihara Kazuki felt more like the doughnut's hole.


	25. Chapter 25 -SorrySeemsToBeTheHardestWord

**Chapter 25: "'Sorry' is the Hardest Word to Say"**

By the time Hihara and Shimizu had returned to the hotel, most everyone else was reassembled in the downstairs conference room. They were back hard at work practicing. Hihara manfully decides to go on up and have it out with Yunoki in their room to see what was wrong and if he could help. He leaves Shimizu holding the box of donuts and cookies to divvy out to the musicians.

Fuyuumi felt especially lucky, when her special Austrian marzipan cookie was personalized. The other girls were all presented with lovely frosted blue-and-white angel cookies, while Fuyuumi received a singular yellow and fuchsia pink-frocked aqua haired one. Shimizu's smile as he handed it to her was as golden as the tiny angel's halo.

Once the cookies and donuts were either politely accepted or greedily devoured on the spot, the group of musicians/fangirls (hee hee) begins to settle back to their ensemble practice. Ousaki, who had arranged during lunch time to help out, was there to pick up the reins as OB in charge of the group's musical lead that Hihara and Yunoki left open.

They had all just started to play when Hihara comes barreling back in, a look of sheer terror on his panting face.

"Yunoki! Yunoki!" Hihara was almost hyperventilating, looking like he had just run a marathon.

And he had.

Running as he's never run before, down the hallway, dashing down the stairwell from the sixth floor, racing through hallways, across the lobby and into the conference room like a madman, his eyes were wild with panic.

"Hihara-kun, calm down." Ousaki grabs the boy's tense shoulders and gives them a shake, as Hihara was almost incoherent in his panting.

"Yunoki!" Hihara's terrified look causes more than a few gasps from the girls. Hino rushes over to him, clutching his arm to give him support, though steeling herself for the worst. Her eyes meet Tsukimori's, and he was at her side immediately.

"Hurry! I found him in our room lying on the floor!Yunoki won't wake up!" Hihara huffs fiercely, breaking down in anguished tears as everyone stares at him in horror and fear for their ever suave, though secretly eccentric, wealthy friend.

Paralyzed with fear, frozen still like many of the others, Hino begins to shiver as frightened eyes dart around the room wildly for what to do. Good thing coolheaded Ousaki Shinobu had just arrived. He exchanges a short nod with Tsukimori, as he instructs the remainder of the musicians and girls to:

"Please stay here and stay calm, everyone." Ousaki leaves the room momentarily to inform the front hotel desk to call their in-house medic to Yunoki's room.

"Come with me, Hihara-kun." Quickly, Ousaki returns, putting a comforting yet urgent arm around the sobbing boy's shoulders as the two men swiftly depart.

"I hope Yunoki-san's all right." Kaji says, his brow concerned for his cousin as several of the others nod in agreement. Fuyuumi's palm goes over her trembling lips in shock

Hino was fighting the urge to rush out and dash upstairs, when she feels a cool hand slip into hers.

"Huh?" she asks, looking into a golden pair of determined, understanding eyes.

Silently, wordlessly, his hand in hers, pulls her forward and out of the conference room and into the elevator in clipped haste.

"Tsukimori-kun?" She wonders aloud, her head reeling. But neither of them say a word. Before she knows it, Tsukimori Len had her on the hotel's sixth floor, rapidly traversing the halls towards room 606.

Yunoki Azuma's room.

_Thank you._ Hino tearfully mouths to the blue boy who knew her feelings so well, so as one they had become, as he swiftly opens the door with the final stalwart glance into Hino's eyes, as if reaching to reassure her, as they enter.

Laboring for breath, Yunoki was lying still on the floor, his sister Miyabi, whom Hihara had quickly stuck his head into her room, informing of her brother's illness, was nowhere in sight.

Hino was about to go to him, to see how he was doing, the distress on his normally smooth-talking, elegant face apparent in his unconscious state,when she hears a terrible wail coming from the other side of the wall.

"AZUMA-SAMA!" Ayano Takashina was a mess, her normally pristine dress and hair style in ruins, her porcelain doll's face awash with terrified tears as she appears, crashing through the door in a very unsophisticated, unladylike manner.

"Azuma-sama!" The girl was a shipwreck, never once seeing either Tsukimori or Hino, her eyes only for her unconscious love. Ayano falls down to her knees at Yunoki's side, throwing herself bodily upon him, totally ignoring the fact that she was in nothing more than a crumpled nightgown and bare feet. Ayano had rushed straight from her tearful bed when she heard Hihara's frantic call into their room next door. Miyabi's pleas and cries on the phone to the hotel lobby for someone to send aid up to her passed out brother had mobilized the frightened dark-haired girl.

"Azuma-sama! DON'T LEAVE ME! AZUMA-SAMA! Ayano forgives you anything. Ayano loves you anyway." She was hysterical by now. Crying herself, Hino crosses over to the girl, trying to pry her devastated form from its prostrate position over her beloved.

"No! Please do not take me from him!"

Miyabi soon returns to the room, the young girl somehow finding enough inner strength to calmly place the phone call at Hihara's command. And now she was not a weeping mess at her favorite brother's side as was his fiancée. No, Miyabi would be strong for him, and she helps Hino with Ayano. Both the young women try to calm the hysterical girl gently, pulling her away altogether from Yunoki's limp body. Tsukimori Len then takes over, and lifts Yunoki's still struggling for breath frame from the floor, to place him on the bed. Tsukimori then checks the indigo man's pulse with concerned knitted eyebrows.

Yunoki's pulse was as erratic as his breathing. Tsukimori was shaken at first when Yunoki's pulse rate was all but nonexistent. But blessedly, after a few seconds, Yunoki's breath comes out roughly, his pulse increasing to an abnormally quick rate. Good thing Tsukimori was not one to freak out immediately, for the three crying girls in the room would've truly gone hysterical if he had not kept his own council. Up and down, fast and slow, stop and start, Yunoki's pulse and breathing play tricks on poor Tsukimori, and the violinist was beyond grateful when Hihara and Ousaki come rushing in with the hotel house doctor they had gone in search of right behind them.

After several silent anxious minutes of the doctor's ministrations with an experienced stethoscope and heart rate meter, the older man turns to the tense group with a grave expression on his face.

"It appears this young man has not been taking proper care of himself, and is now suffering the ill effects with some type of nervous breakdown." He gives his decisive diagnosis, his Austrian accent thick and thought provoking.

"Oh no." Hino breathes into Ayano's sobbing head as Miyabi clutches Hihara's hand, giving each other support in this time of mutual need.

"Are any of you his relations?" The doctor asked, whilst rechecking his patient's unusual, ever-changing pulse rate

"I - I am his sister, sir." Miyabi steps forward with a calmness that was to be commended for her years, with a not-so-collected Hihara at her side.

"_Gut_." The Austrian doctor seemed at last to meet Miyabi's small but steady gaze.

"Your brother's going to need for you to be strong, Miss -?"

"Yunoki." Hihara fills in her name and that of his best friend, the doctor noting this young man's bond with the siblings, as well.

"Yes, Miss Yunoki. You're going to have to keep a close eye on him-the next few hours are going to be critical ones." The doctor says, his warning as kindly as possible, though he's seen cases like this before where the patient's mind could snap irrevocably at any moment, if not properly monitored. He refrains from saying this though, as, when Yunoki's breathing intensifies in speed, the doctor checks his varied pulse rate yet again. Then the doctor returns to Miyabi with a clinical, wary look in his aged eye.

"Are you aware if your brother has had an emotional breakdown that led to a physical one like this before?"

Miyabi shoots a distressed look at Hihara for help, the doctor picking up the curious intonation there.

"Nothing like this." Hihara answers honestly

"But he has had episodes of strange behavior?"

"Well...sometimes... but he's never been actually sick..." Hihara says cautiously, not quite knowing what to say. He hadn't known for certain, for years. _Sure, Yunoki had his weird moments - but-_

_"_If your brother has been displaying odd hot and cold moods, it may be due to some imbalance in his metabolism. He does appear to be rather malnourished." The doctor lifts Yunoki's limp and dreadfully bony forearm to prove his point. Yunoki Azuma had carried himself with such elegance and poise that none had noticed his rather frail, underweight form, nor the sunken unhealthy look to his highbred cheeks.

_Not a one of us. Not even me. And I should have noticed. What kind of friend am I?_ Hihara hits himself hard mentally, for being so unobservant of his best friend's troubles.

"I did note how light he was to lift to the bed." Tsukimori says matter-of-factly. _No full-grown man should be that light weight._

"Yes, this young man needs proper nutrition. I'll prescribe for him some nutrient boosters and supplements that will have to be administered routinely, along with a regimen of healthy meals. I'll lay out a plan for you for when he's awake again, Miss Yunoki." Miyabi nods as the doctor fills out some papers and hands them to an eager-to-help-out Ousaki Shinobu, who goes right out to fill the prescription at the pharmacy. Resourceful Amou Nami (who had been intensely listening at the door) had already GPS-ed the nearest drugstore and had informed the pharmacy of their arrival. She had read out the prescription to them over the phone to prepare them, as she directs Ousaki there as soon as he appears from the door, like the seasoned pro she was in emergencies.

"I will be back to check on and administer the supplement injections periodically. Please keep up your own strength in the meantime. I'll go fetch my other bag." The white-haired doctor leaves to get his medical kit for needle injections from hotel's medic center.

"Ich werde dir helfen mit ihre Tasche, Doktor." (_I'll help you with your bags, Doctor._) Tsukimori offers the older man politely in German. Len had become even more fluent in the language during his two years spent here. Tsukimori exchanges a calm glance with Hino before he exits the door.

"Vielen Dank, junger Mann." (_Thank you, young man._) The elderly gentleman was grateful for any assistance from the well spoken young man. Besides his general politeness, Tsukimori Len was uncomfortable that he was intruding on the emotional feminine turmoil in the room and felt that it would be better if he was not present in the more delicate sex's affairs.

He would leave that in Hino's capable gentle hands, which were still embracing Ayano. The girl's devastated wails had calmed to quieter sobs by now, but her heart ached visibly on the harsh lines creasing her usually flawless face.

"Why didn't I see it? I, of all people. should have seen it! Yunoki's my best friend and I never knew! Stupid Kazuki!" Another heart broken for Yunoki Azuma, Hihara Kazuki starts blaming himself, pounding his dumb numbskull with the back of his hand on the other side of the room, where he stood at Yunoki's bedside.

Miyabi stops his self inflicted pain, wrapping her arms protectively around Hihara's poor head, pulling it to her chest for comfort instead.

"Don't blame yourself, couldn't have known. I didn't know either. Shh." Miyabi murmurs over him. From this scene, one would never have thought she was the younger, more fragile of the species.

"Yunoki-senpai's going to be all right, Ayano-san. The doctor said that we just have to take good care of him, to make him well in body and mind with our love." Hino, too, finds the wherewithall to reassure the distraught girl in her arms.

It was as if a spark of light went off in Ayano's head at Hino's words. All the dark devastation she was sinking in, not just now, but for days, parts to reveal, through Hino Kahoko's golden shining words, a ray of hope glimmering brightly, stemming from her great devotion.

"To make him well in body and mind, with my love."Ayano whispers the positive phrase. She slowly opens her teary eyes and gives Hino an inspired smile that tells Hino this delicate young girl would try to be as strong as her love for him could be.

And that was strong, indeed. Ayano collects herself up and goes to her fiancé's bedside, sitting down and taking his cold bony unconscious hand in her warm, no longer trembling ones.

"Ayano's here, Azuma-sama. Ayano always has been. Ayano always will be."

In this moment Ayano could see the fragile heart behind the eyes that miraculously flutter open, albeit vaguely weak, meet her gaze of assured love. It was as if Yunoki could sense her presence and needed terribly to say something to the girl he'd hurt so many times, before time and tide made it too late.

"Ayano." Yunoki's once so-confident voice was small and thin as he was about to utter two words he's never said to anyone before in his entire self-absorbed, self-pitying life.

"I'm sorry."

The tears, the sadness, the agony and the pain he had inflicted upon this lovely loyal creature over the years, ever since they met as small children, through no fault of her own, had been preying on his warped mind in ways even Yunoki Azuma didn't conceptualize.

Until now.

For amidst his unconsciousness, he had felt her gracious presence, her soft hands upon his, her warmth so generously given to he who deserved nothing but her contempt. And Yunoki Azuma's confused, distorted spirit, for once, is too weak to fight his true heart any longer, as he realizes what this girl's unfailing love now meant to him.

A future where there was really no difference in up or down, left or right, back or forth, black or white- there was only unchangeable, unshakable love. For, no matter who he's been or what he's done, he had still the constancy of Ayano's love.

A love that even enigmatic Yunoki Azuma no longer wished to deny.


	26. Chapter 26 - 'JeTeVeux'Means'IWantYou'

**Chapter 26: "Je Te Veux - Means I Want You..."**

Yunoki's illness had put pallor over the beginning of the students' Austrian vacation. Ousaki Shinobu, after his task to fetch the prescription that the Doctor advised was fulfilled, had returned with his sidekick Amou Nami to the distracted students practicing music in the conference room and informs them of Yunoki's fragile condition.

The laughter and the cookies and the smiles and the pleasant music of just an hour or two before are replaced by somber melodies. Everyone feels the happy mood saddened by the thought that one of their own, their elegant, always polite, regal senpai had fallen ill, and it was reflected in their music.

So instead of continuing the sad practice, Ousaki adjourns the group early, so at least they could keep their worried upset minds occupied on more pleasant activities like sightseeing around Vienna's beautiful streets rather than stewing depressing thoughts in a solemn music room. So off Ousaki sends them, for their own good, with advice to couple off. It wouldn't be wise for any of them to be alone in such a mood, for they could cheer one another far better on this downcast dreary day.

Tsuchiura doesn't need to be convinced further. He, without a word to anyone, never mind Mizue, takes off and out the door before the dust even settles on the piano seat he was sitting on. Seeing Mizue's saddened face, Mori brainstorms to ignore the bad weather and hit the Austrian shopping scene with her ditched friend after her own Kaji Aoi excuses himself to visit his sick cousin. Meanwhile, Shimizu had asked Fuyuumi to accompany him on a visit to a nearby museum called the "Belvedere." And with Tsuzuki Mari and Director Kira already out all morning visiting some distinguished musical elebrities to invite them to the concert, that left only Shouji Megumi and Etou Kiriya lingering around the practice room.

Taking note from his elder classman, Etou saw how transformed Shoko-senpai's downhearted spirits became when Keiichi-senpai asked the fragile girl to go out with him into town, as Shinobu-san suggested. Perhaps the same would apply to his own timid accompanist, for Shouji Megumi was depressingly silent since Azuma-san's condition was announced.

Valiantly forfeiting his own valuable planned practice time, Etou suddenly speaks.

"Do you want to go out somewhere, Megumi?" He offers offhandedly, half expecting-half wishing-the girl not to accept.

But when her big blue startled eyes gaze up at him with unmitigated adoration from her piano bench with a surprised start, he knew he was wrong again.

"You—you want to go somewhere with me?" Shouji couldn't believe her good fortune to have the super talented, soon-to-be super famous, super gorgeous young man actually ask her—on a date?! Shouji's heart was sent spinning.

Sure, the two had been spending more and more time together over the past year since she's become his personal accompanist, but their meetings and interests discussed were always concerning the music and they're playing of it. Never had Etou Kiriya actually asked Megumi to go anywhere with them outside of the practice rooms and school music events.

_Could this be the moment our own violin romance begins?_ Shouji didn't need any more convincing.

That was good, because cool Etou was not going to give much more. Her sad frown turns into a great big happy smile that she flashes at Etou just before she goes racing from the conference room to fetch her coat.

"Good idea." Etou follows her at a more sedate pace to retrieve his own, though he still felt his time would be better spent practicing.

"I think." He murmurs to himself, uncertain still if he should encourage the shy young girl's ideas of romance concerning him. Etou's plans for his future only included world travel and winning competitions and capturing fame. Could this mousy little girl possibly be the one strong enough to stand at his side and be part of it? Etou wasn't as sure of Shouji as she was of him.

Along the streets of Vienna, the two youths were bundled up to face the Austrian cold weather. Etou had put on an extra vest beneath his fur-collared jacket. Shouji was wearing her stylish warm brown leather coat over a thick sweater and a pair of long slacks with tall boots. But all the warmth she needed was right beside her. Shouji couldn't stop herself from glancing over to peek at the hot yet cool boy walking alongside her. The pair of headphones he continually sported for his iPod could easily double as earmuffs, making the slick youth appear well ready for the cold. And Kiriya Etou always wore that self-confident air that made him look ready for anything that would come his way.

Anything but this.

They were in search of a diversion to pass the time, beyond the normal Vienna touring stroll they were enjoying together. At least Shouji was, Etou's constant thought of wanting to get back to practice somewhat dousing his eagerness, when Shouji suddenly stops in her tracks.

"Megumi? What? Etou asks her, taking a well-heeled backward step to rejoin where the girl had silently paused in their walk. Her mittened fingers slowly point to a sign on a large dome building up ahead as if she were in a daydream.

"I've always dreamed of going ice skating with the boy I—" Shouji did not realize she was actually speaking aloud her fantasy, so excited she was, until the last second, and the truth almost slips out. Blessedly, though, it took quite a lot for the self-absorbed Etou to notice. But her pointing hand and swooning for joy phase could not be denied. "You want to go in there? Ice skating?" Etou asks, reading the somewhat difficult Austrian language sign over the dome like building. But the red-faced people coming out with pairs of ice skates slung over their shoulders, not to mention the illustrated picture of a boy and girl skating together over the door, was proof enough.

"Oh yes! I'd love to! Kiriya, please, may we?" Shouji was all but begging. Etou pauses before answering. He, in all of his 16 years of life had never been in an ice rink before. He had never even stepped into a pair of skates. He'd seen it done on television when passing the channels during the Olympic season, and it looked easy enough for them.

_So why not? I'm an expert at all water sports, so why not the frozen variety?_ Etou Kiriya's overconfidence in his own skills would be the end of him someday.

"Why not?" Etou shrugs, certain that if he could play the violin as exquisitely as he did, what's a little slide across a little ice to him?

_I can do it, So! _

Shouji giggles with glee, for she was an expert skater since she was a little girl, when her papa used to take her to the local ice rink in Iwate. Enthusiastically, she tugs on Kiriya's parka sleeve and drags him into the icy wonderland. Once their skates were rented, the two were ready to go. Shouji didn't wait for hesitant Etou, not noticing his wary look as she excitedly steps onto the ice like a pro. She races forward and accomplishes a variety of spins and little jumps. Amidst giggles, she didn't see Etou just getting accustomed to his ice skates' wobbly feel, staying behind the gate, merely a spectator of the busy ice rink scene.

"Come on out, Kiriya! It's so lovely out here!" Shouji calls when she comes around to his sidebar again, and then zips across the rink again at a dizzying rate. She feels that thrill of cool wind in her face yet again that she adored when she was a little girl.

"Yeah, sure." As he surveyed them, Etou was growing even more certain he could do what all those people circulating around could do.

_Look, even kids can do it with ease, Kiriya! If they can do it, you certainly can do it! Besides, you're not the type to play it safe_. Etou had been watching several fearless children skating around like Shouji was at breakneck speeds. Just maybe not as beautiful or graceful as she can. Etou finds some strange frosty delirium falling over his normally indifferent cool attitude whenever he watched Shouji's lithe petite body spin around and around. Her elegant spins and graceful lifts turning into brave double axel and loop jumps hypnotized Etou as he stares, blindly seeing only Shouji Megumi amidst the noisy crowds of parents, children, and sweethearts skating hand-in-hand on the glistening ice.

After she finishes yet another flawless triple lutz jump, Shouji does one more dizzying spin and slides out to the siding breathlessly, bringing the rink's pamphlet of schedules she'd been handed by some children on the ice from the other side to show to him.

"Kiriya! Please come! The ice is just perfect now!" Here at home in her element on the ice, Shouji didn't feel shy at all anymore about calling him his first name, as he had requested, or boldly taking his hot sweaty hand in her excited trembling one, either. Shouji didn't notice Etou's reticence in all her breathless glory as she happily pulls his moist warm palm, obliviously unaware she was making him take his first step onto the ice.

"Whoa-Oh!" Etou screams out, never imagining it was so hard to just to stay on one's feet when slippery ice was beneath them.

Good thing, Shouji was a sturdy on the ice little princess. She catches his fall, and manages to steady him. Etou's legs comically threaten to go in opposite directions as Shouji pulls him along like a mother with a small child on his first bike.

"Lean on me, Kiriya. Calm, steady. I know it sounds silly, but you have to 'Become one with the ice.'" Shouji tries to remember a father's words to a tiny little girl all those years ago on the ice at home in Iwate.

Her one hand pulls Etou deeper into the rink, as her eyes pull him deeper into her smile. Embarrassed when other teens and young men his age start chuckling at the shaky newcomer, chic Etou tries to find his own skating legs. He nods for her to let him go, feeling stupid at being led around by a girl in front of all those laughing men. A girl that right here, right now in this moment of his utmost stress, he'd do anything to impress.

"You're going to be fine, Kiriya!" Shouji encourages warmly, now realizing that the young man had never skated before in his life. His cool confident eyes were wild with being out of control and vulnerable -two things he despised most in the world.

"Kiriya. I'm right here. Just keep calm—and don't look down!" But the warning comes a moment too late, overconfident Etou Kiriya tries to cut loose and loses it totally. Shouji flies up to him, saving his fall as he grasps her offered hand tightly, throwing his flailing arms round her body fully and holding on for dear life as they spin around and around until they come to a slow halting stop.

She feels the intense heat of his sweaty palm still clasped tightly around hers, the warmth of his panting body pressing against hers needing her so desperately. There was a fearful look in his gaze she never knew could exist in the naturally cocky boy.

Mortified to have let his guard down, Etou's injured pride draws into himself. They pull apart as the stubborn streak in him tries to shakily stand on his own again. Trying to catch his distant look again, Shouji hears, from the loudspeakers above, a certain melody start to drift down and sees something magical alight his eyes that she'd never seen there before. It was as if some unseen force watching over the erstwhile boy from

Above was giving Etou Kiriya a gentle push across not only this ice, but through the ice coating his obstinate heart as well, to the playful music of "Je te Veux".

Loss. Loneliness. Vulnerability. Need. Love.

Somehow, surprising even himself in this moment lost in her eyes, his soul's familiar "Je te Veux" begins to play aloud over the ice, Etou Kiriya realizes how much he did need someone in this world. Someone's caring hands to hold, someone's kind voice to encourage, someone's soft shoulder to lean on, someone whose soulful melody could give meaning to his life and his music, in turn...

_Someone like Megumi_.

The girl was amazed at how the clumsy youth of just a few seconds before transformed, as the music began, into a surefooted skater. But with one look in his newly awakened eyes, Shouji senses that Etou felt something that had been trapped inside him all those lonely, sad years unfold in this moment. His cold heart begins to burn with a new-found emotion slowly being awakened by hearing Megumi's lovely piano playing from earlier at the Opera House adding something wondrous to his violin's music accompanied by hers. Both sounds of violin and piano melded ring in his ears as his lighter feet are carried across the ice at Shouji's unashamedly adoring side.

Hand-in-hand they skate, side-by-side, as both teens were filled with the magic of this new Violin Romance Shouji's heart had been praying for that was now beginning to bud. The sweet music of "Je te Veux" floats the pair across the fairy sprinkled ice rink as their eyes, locked in a waltz all their own, speak Satie's romantic title phrase to one another, so many times...

..._"Je te Veux"... _

_..."I want you"... _


	27. Chapter 27 - Ah! How Fickle Is Woman!

**Chapter 27: "Ah! How Fickle is Woman"  
**

The Vienna Opera House has near perfect harmonics." After a day full of visiting the Belvedere and Albertina museums in the nearby cultural district, Shimizu suggests he and Fuyuumi take a leisurely peep at the famed Opera theater.

"The Vienna Opera House has near-perfect harmonics." This is a fact that Shimizu Keiichi was very glad to discover indeed. Not just as a member of the audience as he would be today, Fuyuumi Shoko at his side, but as a member of the musical ensemble scheduled to play upon its stage in just a few days.

Shimizu must've remarked upon that fact at least twenty or more times since the young couple arrived at its doors. He was so excited by that fact, he was nearly impossible to speak to about anything else, so lost in his own world was he.

There was to be showing of the Verdi opera 'Rigoletto' in just a few minutes, and Fuyuumi becomes quite flustered as Shimizu continues to slowly ramble on and on about "the acoustics" and the "dynamics" and "echo chambers" of the Opera House that he had wandered from seat row to row, just to listen for where the best sound would be heard from. Of course, the opera patrons did not appreciate the smallish blond boy turning up in their well-paid for, reserved seats.

Fuyuumi was beyond embarrassed when a portly woman, dripping with furs and diamonds, actually sat down on Shimizu's lap. He had drifted with his eyes closed to sleep, whilst comparing the harmonics of the 17th and 18 rows of seating. He had caused such a ruckus not normally witnessed at this type of sophisticated event, that the  
manager of the Vienna State Opera House had to be called in to deal with the young foreign upstart, who was oh-so-finicky about the 'perfect sound experience' the majestic opera house had to offer.

"Bitte, Entschuldigen Sie!" (_Please, excuse me!_) The tall by-the-book looking man in full tuxedo hurries to where Shimizu had dazedly wandered, a red faced Fuyuumi just at his heels, for the boy was still testing the 'acoustics of the front row', blissfully ignoring the protests of the patrons around.

"Yes, this one finally is just right." Shimizu's pleased smile was golden in his obliviousness of how unsettling he was, causing chaos amidst the auspicious Opera House's posh patrons attending this choice performance.

"Ke-Ke-Keiichi-kun, please. Our seats are back over there, Keiichi-kun." Just above a whisper, Fuyuumi had been quietly trying to bring the boy back to reality. Their tickets were designated for seats much further back than the front row, but he didn't like those seats' "sound dynamics"at all.

So, on a mad seat hunt for that ideal sound the pair began.

"Bitte! Bitte! Koman mitt mir!" (_Please! Please! Come with me!_)

Another tuxedo-ed opera house official comes racing up the aisle, trying to remove the zoned-out boy in the front row seat before the curtain was to go up, very shortly now. The Austrian manager's accent was very thick as he then attempts to speak in English, a more universal language.

"Please, with me, young man!"

"I am pleased to meet you very too, Sir." Shimizu says in his own broken English, thinking that was what the frantic manager was trying to say to him with his wild hand gestures as our blonde angel grips the man's discombobulated hand and shakes it in pleasant greeting.

"Nein! Nein! Koman mitt mir!" (_No! No! Come with me!_) The other attendant who had soon joined the manager, repeats the plea for Shimizu to leave the seat, this one actually laying hands on him to pull him up. Shimizu placidly gives that frazzled man's hands a friendly shake back as well, missing the point entirely. The manager throws his hands up, almost at his wits end by now, as Shimizu continues to pleasantly smile, swaying back and forth as he closes his eyes again in search of that perfect sound.

"Keiichi-kun, I think they want us to leave." Fuyuumi whispers, mortified. She hastily sits next to him, when the audience behind begins making shushing noises and signals for her and the others to be quiet and get out of the way of the rising curtain. Seeing they were part of the disturbance themselves, the two Opera officials quickly sit down, one on either side of Shimizu and Fuyuumi, silent as lambs now the opera was in progress.

"Keiichi-kun, I think..." Fuyuumi whispers in his ear, but Shimizu merely smiles at her.

"They were just looking for seat "9", Shoko-san. I suppose they're a little lost." Shimizu logically explains his theory to his girl, who bites her lower lip. Then he turns in reply to the frustrated manager at his left.

"These seats are much better anyway. The acoustics are much more dynamic up here than in the back row. Or in seat nine—you'll see." Shimizu matter-of-factly informs the flabbergasted man in all expertly concerned honesty. After all, the tight-lipped fellow looked like he could use all the perfect sound and tone color that he could get, his ears so red, and his poor neck veins already popping.

"NEIN!" The manager explodes, just about to call in the security to remove this crazed foreigner.

"SHHH!" The entire audience halts him from doing just that, for the curtain finally begins to open, as the music from the pit orchestra begins to rumble to life. The manager and attendant both hang their heads in their hands, wiping sweaty brows in worry of the consequences this little punk was causing.

So, for the first time in her life, Fuyuumi Shoko was seated in the front row seat of a prestigious opera at the legendary Vienna State Opera House, no less. She is both ashamed and awed by the majesty of the all impressive grand music coming from the enormous orchestra pit so close to the innocent pair that Fuyuumi could almost touch the instruments. She shivers to think they'd be on this stage themselves sometime next week, as the curtain fully rises.

Giuseppe Verdi's opera of Rigoletto begins. Set in 16th century Italy, in the city of Mantua, a libertine sings of the pleasures of knowing many women. He sees an unknown beauty at church while still seeking the Countess of Ceprano. Rigoletto, as the Duke's hunchback court jester, mocks the husbands of the ladies his royal master fancies and advises the Duke to get rid of them all by death. Rumors about Rigoletto's lover go around, but no one believes it. The noblemen are resolved to take vengeance on the hunchback. Rigoletto mocks a count, whom the amoral Duke had seduced the daughter of. The count is arrested at the Duke's word, and he places a curse upon the Duke and Rigoletto, who is terrified.

Just about now, Kanazawa Hiroto, in the role of the Duke himself, spots the two familiar faces in the front row and raises a wine glass to them as greeting.

"Oh, Kanazawa-sensei is drinking again. And he has many girlfriends here in Vienna." Naive Shimizu comments, not seeming to differentiate between his former teacher's acting and reality.

"He didn't do **that** in Yokohama." Shimizu imparts Kanayan's scandalous behavior concerning females to Fuyuumi, she not sure how to break it to her innocent beau that this was just a stage play, so deeply into it he had gotten.

Scene two begins. Walking in the streets, Rigoletto is stopped by an assassin, who offers his services. They sing a song about having similar lives. The jester goes home and his daughter Gilda sings a song of her own. He's been hiding her from the world and the Duke especially, for she didn't know his job. He forbids her from going anywhere except Church. She doesn't even know her father's name.

Despite Rigoletto's precautions, the Duke follows her home from church that day, after her father left. The Duke listens in. Here is Gilda confessing to her nurse that she felt guilty for not having told her father about a boy she saw at church whom she would love even more if he was poor. The Duke enters her house at this point, overjoyed. But Gilda is frightened, and calls for her nurse, whom the Duke already sent away.

The two sing a duet now of their love titled "E Il Sol Dell Anima" which means "Love Is the Sunshine of My Soul". Gilda responds in kind, falling in love with him. She asks his name, and the Duke hesitates before he answers "_Gwaltier Malde_". Just then they hear sounds and she thinks it's her father. After bidding their love farewells, they sing "Addio, Addio" together, then the Duke leaves. Now alone, Gilda sings "Gwaltier Malde, Cara Nome", (Gwaltier Malde, Dearest Name) for him.

Later, the evil nobleman come and accuse her of being Rigoletto's mistress. They abduct her and convince Rigoletto into believing they've kidnapped the Countess of Ceprano as the court jester helps the kidnappers. After realizing his mistake, Rigoletto collapses, remembering the curse. End of Act I.

Wishing to explain the story fully to Fuyuumi, Shimizu begins to prattle on during the ensuing break. He deciphers song titles in the Italian language and tells the opera better than even the men at his side knew it, despite seeing it numerous times themselves.

"E Il Sol Dell Anima." Shimizu smiles, slowly reciting the song title by memory, impressing the attendants greatly by his off the cuff knowledge of the art form of an era they thought had gone by today's jaded young. They assumed opera now was for only the elderly and rich, not an ideal dating spot for young man to take his young lady to anymore. They sit there as audience, stunned by the strange teenager's vast knowledge.

"I love operas, with all the classical music and magnificent singing." Shimizu begins to explain his fondness of the ancient art form. The oft sordid stories he didn't really follow completely in his naiveté, but he liked the sound of them anyway.

"Kanazawa-sensei and Miss Van Etten's duet was so beautiful." Fuyuumi says, a dreamy look in her eye after the romantic duo took her breath away. Kanazawa-sensei seemed so in love and happy and not just in his excellent acting. Fuyuumi was heartened to see him again.

"Kanazawa-okusan." Shimizu softly corrects a blushing Fuyuumi.

* * *

Act II begins. At the Duke's Palace, Kanazawa-sensei sings a song named "Ella Mi Fu Rapita!" (She's Been Stolen from Me!) then he rolls into"Parmi Veder le Lagrime" (I Seem to See Tears). The  
noblemen come in and tell the Duke that they've captured Rigoletto's mistress. They describe her and he instinctively knows it's Gilda, his love, they're talking about. He sings another song "Possente Amore Mi Chiama" (Mighty Love Believes Me).

Pleased by the Duke's strange excitement, the noblemen tease Rigoletto. He tries to save Gilda by saying he doesn't care, afraid the Duke would get her. Finally he admits she is his daughter and sings a song to get her back. The men beat him up when he attempts to get to her room. She rushes in and begs Rigoletto to send them all away. They leave the room believing he's gone mad. She describes, in song, what happened to her at the Palace with the Duke. Rigoletto vows vengeance on the Duke, while Gilda pleads for him, singing: "Tutte le Feste Al Tempio" (On the Blessed Days, While Praying to God) .

After the song finishes, the audience begins applauding, and Fuyuumi turns to see what Shimizu thought of this act, when she notices the blond's head slumped on the shoulder of the bewildered manager.

"Shimizu-kun. Act three is almost about to start." Fuyuumi gingerly nudges him, the manager and attendant exchanging worried glances over the fainted boy's weak condition.

Act III. At the assassin Sparafucile's house, Rigoletto brings his daughter outside. The Duke's voice was inside, singing "La Donna Mobile" (How Fickle Is Woman?). Rigoletto makes Gilda realize that the Duke was trying to seduce Sparafucile's sister. Now Rigoletto sees Sparafucile and offers him money to kill the Duke. Rigoletto forces Gilda to wear men's clothes and go to Venice, and he'll follow her later. It gets dark, and there's a thunderstorm, so the Duke stays inside.

"Ohh!" Fuyuumi jumps with a squeak when the cymbals, right close by, clang loudly for thunder ringing in her ears. Her hand shoots into Shimizu's, who comes wide awake for her and squeezes it back, kindly.

"It's just the cymbals, Shoko." He smiles back sweetly as an angel, unperturbed by any musical instrument when it was in correct rhythm and key.

Back on stage, Sparafucile assigns the Duke the downstairs spare room. Gilda, despite knowing the Duke was an unfaithful wretch, returns, dressed as a man. She overhears the assassin's sister begging for the Duke's life. Sparafucile promises his besotted sister, that if, by midnight, she could somehow switch the victim's body so he had one to show Rigoletto, he'd kill whoever was there.

Gilda resolves to do this for the Duke's sake, and she is mortally wounded. At midnight Rigoletto comes with the money and receives a corpse wrapped in a sack. He rejoices his triumph, about to throw the body into the river, when he hears the Duke singing "La Donna Mobile". Bewildered, Rigoletto opens the sack and finds it's his mortally wounded daughter. She wakes up and sings, declaring she was glad to die for her beloved. "V'ho Ing Ann Ato" (Father, I Deceived You), and then she dies in his arms and he cries out:

"THE CURSE!"

The Opera of Rigoletto ends.

* * *

After the first round of applause at the tremendous job the opera company had done, the actors all come out and take a well deserved bow. Shimizu and Fuyuumi wave to Kanazawa-sensei, the Duke, who gives them a special extra flourishing bow after bestowing the rest of his adoring audience with a dramatic blown kiss. Women swoon as the audience claps wildly for the famed leading man and his beautiful costar, Caterina Van Etten, who played the part of poor Gilda, who died for love, to a 'T'.

"Bravo. Bravo." Shimizu calls out slowly, rather devoid of the usual theatre going passion, but all the sentiment was still there. The two men look at each other on either side of him, waiting on whether or not they were going to press charges or at least make these children pay exorbitantly for the much sought after front row seats that somehow luckily had been kept vacant the entire opera with no incident. But those who held the important valued tickets miraculously had missed the show, so there wasn't an issue there.

"Thank you, for an enjoyable evening. The perfect harmonics of your Opera House made Verdi's Opera all the more pleasurable." Shimizu politely bows to them. Fuyuumi in her cute little pink dress curtsies behind him, praying the authorities would go easy on Shimizu. She gives the oblivious boy her sweetest, lip bitten smile.

"Nein. Nein. Herzlichen Dank." (_No, No, I thank you heartily_) The one man returns the bow with a clipped respectful one of his own, the other shaking Shimizu's hand with a short "Guten Nacht" (_Good night_) coupled with a generous smile, heartily impressed by the boy's intense single-minded love of music as both inspired managers wave him fond farewells.

"Guten Nacht." Shimizu was learning something about Vienna—and maybe Vienna was learning something from Shimizu Keiichi as well.


	28. Chapter 28 - Bless All the Dear Children

**Chapter 28: "Bless All the Dear Children"**

_Knock Knock Knock_

"Come in! Unless you've got more flowers—Ahhh-chooo!" Kanazawa Hiroto's deep voice murmurs under his breath about any further appearances his sworn enemy, pollen. After a long, albeit successful, night on the stage, the last thing the lead tenor needed was an allergy attack. But theaters and flowers seemed to go hand in hand. So that's why the sensation-causing operatic leading man and his leading lady had a dressing room that resembled a floral bowery. Kanayan didn't mind the occasional standing bouquet or two when he and his voluptuous co-star were showered in the pollen laden things, but enough was enough.

_A man's got to put his foot down once in awhile!_

"God bless you." Is Shimizu Keiichi's greeting to his former teacher turned operatic superstar.

"Why, thank you, Shimizu! Fuyuumi! Look at you two!" Kanayan pulls the young couple into the backstage room, after he had given the grip boy a note to deliver to the sleepy blond and his aqua-haired girlfriend in the front room earlier to come backstage.

"I would've thought that Kira'd have you hard at work for his concert into the wee hours—that slave driver!" Kanayan had been in contact with both his old best friend as well as Ousaki Shinobu, right here in Vienna, so he already was aware of the Seiso concert scheduled here.

"Kanazawa-sensei!" Fuyuumi smiles. "You were wonderful on stage."

"Why, thank you, Miss. Third year graduates now, huh? My, I can't get over how you've both grown! Cat! Look!" Spinning both of them around like dolls until they were rather dizzy, Kanayan turns his head to call to someone behind the changing screen.

"Must I be fully dressed, darling?" Caterina van Etten was decidedly a flirt.

"Yes, dear. My children have come for a visit." Kanayan always felt like his students were his own brood, especially the sleepy boy and this shy little girl.

_"Kinderen?_" In her thick Dutch accent, his buxom beauty suspiciously peers over the screen, pulling on her dressing gown with a little laugh when she sees who was there.

"Ah! Your Seiso children! Let's see who we have here...Cellist Keiichi Shimizu and clarinetist Shoko Fuyuumi. Am I correct, dearest?" Caterina says playfully, recalling the school photo album and the pictures her husband still kept in his wallet of his 'Seiso Family.'

"You are always right, my love." Kanayan kisses both of Caterina's hands to his lips.

"Shimizu, Fuyuumi," he then turns to the wide eyed girl and cloudy-eyed boy, "May I present you with Caterina van Etten—the leading lady of my life."

"Oh, Hiro! You're too much!" The long wavy-haired blonde Dutch woman plants a kiss on Kanayan's embarrassed lips. Though a normal occurance around here, somehow he felt shy to reveal his feelings in front of 'his Seiso children.' He wanted them to remember him as just old 'Kanayan' still.

Fuyuumi blushes at the tall curvaceous woman's open display of affection. She secretly wished she could do that to Shimizu.

_Ahhh!_

She wonders to herself what was she thinking as her face turns redder than ever.

"N-nice to meet you, Mademoiselle." Fuyuumi swallows her own erstwhile visions and remembers to greet in European address.

When Kanayan turns to find Shimizu napping, even on his feet, he gives the rude boy a ping on the forehead.

"Pleased to meet you, Kanazawa Okusan." Shimizu awakens from his sleepwalking slumber with salutations to the older woman accompanied by a reverent bow.

"'Kanazawa_Okusan_?'" Caterina exchanges a surprised look with the lavender ponytailed man.

"Did you tell the children?" She asks the lavender man across from her, surprised.

"Not one word!" Kanayan protests, shaking his head vehemently, animated hands flying about to prove his innocence.

"Well, it would come out sooner or later anyway, Keiichi-kun." The western woman was picking up the Japanese language and knew how to address the pair, albeit on first name basis.

"Kanazawa-okusan means Kanazawa's wife, does it not? Mrs. Kanazawa. It is true. We are husband and wife. But how did you know? It has been kept it a secret for publicity sake." She asks the clear-eyed blond in amazement, thinking him some kind of genius or clairvoyant as she replaces the wedding band to her left hand that she had been removing each night, per their manager's request.

"I saw you on the stage. For 'Rigoletto,' didn't you have to get married after Act 2?" Kanayan and Caterina burst into laughter at the boy's innocence. But however he came to it, it was the truth.

Kanazawa Hiroto and Caterina van Etten **were **indeed husband and wife.

The happily married couple sits their two young visitors down for a long awaited chat over tea.

"So how are the rest of my brood holding up? Kira's not pushing you too hard, is he? Let me know and some heads will—" Kanayan was goodnaturedly teasing, not expecting the next answer.

"Yunoki-senpai is sick." Shimizu states honestly, not knowing how it would affect the older man so.

"What?! Yunoki? Is it just a cold or the flu that's been going around Vienna, or...?" The teacher in Kanayan was instantly worried for one of his oldest students who was never sick a day in his life when he was attending Seiso.

"The doctor says it's a nervous breakdown due to stress and malnutrition." Fuyuumi says sadly, pointing at the handsome young man's smiling face in the picture kept in the wallet of their former teacher that Caterina was still leafing through.

"Oh, dear, Hiro. This is terrible news. You must go and visit the boy." Caterina offers in understanding.

"Yes, yes. Right away. Will you be all right to face the press on your own?" Kanayan was already pulling on his hat and coat.

"Of course! I'll just tell them one of your 'children' has fallen ill. I'm sure they'll understand." She smiles understandingly with her lighthearted taunt. "Do not worry, I'll handle it just fine, my dearest. Now off with you. Stay the night with your students. I'm sure they need your support about now." She gives her husband an encouraging kiss on the cheek.

"It was so nice to finally meet you, Keiichi-chan, Shoko-chan." Caterina proudly remembers not just their names, but the correct Japanese honorifics as she gives the couple a farewell smile.

"You sing so very beautiful." Fuyuumi says in broken English to the woman as Caterina wraps a warmer cloak around the shivering girl to keep her comfy on their way across the Ringstrausse.

"Thank you, sweet child." She pats the little girl on the cheek as she then wraps a silken scarf around her husband's neck.

"I'll call you tonight." Kanayan kisses her goodbye quickly, then leads Shimizu and Fuyuumi out the back door, to avoid the waiting press, to catch the tram back to the Grand Hotel Wien, where their sick friend awaited.

"Vaarwel, mijn liefde." Caterina whispers her love's farewell to her beloved in her native Dutch tongue.

* * *

"Kanayan!" Hihara jumps up with a great start at the sudden appearance of their old teacher entering his and Yunoki's suite of rooms.

"Hihara! My same scapegrace as ever!" Kanayan gives his favorite ex-student a warm noogie, seeing from the wear lines on Hihara's face that the boy could sure use some care and extra kindness, too.

_What has this darn world done to my 3B boys?_

Kanayan regrets for a moment not sticking around to see his two favorite students find their way in the world. But Yunoki was always destined to travel beyond anyone's care.

"It's a good thing you're here for him, Hihara, when he needs us most. How is he?" Kanayan continues to put his arm around Hihara's shoulders—the happy young man with a big heart was truly almost like a son to him.

As Hihara leads him to Yunoki's bedroom, Kanayan sees girls crowding around the room—Hino, Amou, Shouji, Mori, Tsuchiura's friend Sakimoto, Yunoki's little sister, Miyabi, and that lovely dark haired lass keeping constant vigil at Yunoki's bedside must be the devoted fiancee that Kanayan had heard so much about.

_With so many females loitering, it's just like the old days of that so-called Yunoki 'guard' traipsing about the boy at Seiso. _Kanayan muses randomly.

"Kanazawa-sensei," Hino Kahoko whispers. And the mentally exhausted girl rushes to her beloved teacher's now dapper side, hugging him tightly as Kanayan envelops the redhead in his warm arms, soon joined by many of the other girls who longed for a fatherly presence in times of crisis, just the same.

"I'm here now, for all my kids." Kanayan pats Hino's back and rubs Hihara's head simultaneously as his eyes study Yunoki on the bed, a few feet away from the gaggle of past students and friends surrounding the operatic leading man.

His indigo hair was strewn all across his pillow, from his obvious tossing and turning, to restless unconsciousness. Playing on his lips was a pitiful frown that his heavily knit eyebrows mirrored.

_He really was too thin. _Kanazawa sadly notices the bones of Yunoki's clavicle and Adam's apple jutting out from his pallid skin beneath the white pajamas shirt, since the moment the former teacher came in.

_Poor guy._

Kanayan shakes his head at how the most promising graduate of his own class had ended up a broken wreck like this, not even two years later. Kanayan knew of Yunoki's overbearing family issues and how they had continued to rule his life, even from his American business university, but he hadn't known it had gotten this bad.

"What did the doctor say?" Kanayan asks in low tones, like a concerned parent. "When will Yunoki be up and about again?"

"Nobody knows yet. The doctor's running some more initial tests. Yunoki-san mustn't leave this bed indefinitely, at least until his malnourished body is stronger." Mizue whispers, her vocational skills in much need tonight as she rejoins the group after attending to the physician's instructions. Shouji wraps a sympathetic arm about Miyabi's tense shoulders.

"That'll take more than a good night's rest. But...some of my famous chicken broth will surely do the trick! When he wakes up in the morning, I'll have it all prepared for him. As for the rest of you, figure out a tag team. Yunoki doesn't need all seven lovely ladies hovering over him at all hours of the night. Amou, you start. Sort it out. I'll be around in about an hour with my famed miracle cure chicken soup that can fix everything but a rainy day—and maybe even that!" Kanayan was 'teacher' in charge all over again—the level head these young people needed to guide them in times of trouble such as these.

Amou whips put her notepad and quickly draws up a schedule having each of the six girls getting about an hour of watch time. Amou had not chalked down Ayano to her list, all of them knowing full well that the loyal girl was determined to stick it out by her love's side tirelessly throughout the entire night no matter what any of them said. But at least someone else would be there to watch her watching him, if the fragile creature needed any aid.

"Okay." Kanayan agrees to the game plan. He too relinquishes that Ayano was an immovable fixture at his fiance's side. "But as for the rest of you—chop chop!" He quickly scurries the girls from the suite, into the hall where two by two, they disappear into their own rooms.

"Ring the next girl when it's her time, Amou, and then get to sleep yourself. I don't want you up all night or you'll end up like him, too." Kanayan pulls Amou's curly ponytail with a gentle, paternal air.

"Yes, Daddy." Amou says sarcastically, causing Kanayan's eyes to first bulge out, then melt into a soft smile.

"I'll be back soon with the soup. If you need me before that, I'll be in Kira's room—whichever one that is?"

"Executive Suite #601, Pops." Amou says with a teasing grin and a poke in the chest of her favorite old teach.

"Goodnight, then." Kanayan whispers with one final, saddened glance at Yunoki before he leaves, with a very guilty Hihara in tow.

"I've got a job for you, Hihara," Kanayan soon has a list written down of all the ingredients he required to make said nutritious, revitalizing soup, as he sends eager-to-help Hihara off to gather them from the hotel kitchen or local store on the avenue.

Since he didn't really expect an answer, without as much as a 'how-do-you-do?' Kanayan knocks on Kira's door and lets himself in with a spare pass key that Mori had accosted a hotel attendant into giving her with her most convincing eyes. After all, Amou had informed him that the Director and Tsuzuki-san were staying at the home of one of the Vienna Opera House's trustees upon invitation.

"Not too shabby at all..." Kanayan had been in many fancy a hotel room before, but this one was something else. From the terrace to the fancy rugs, Victorian gold decor and plush white curtains, the Grand Hotel Wien was a cut above all the others.

Kanayan makes himself at home, fixing himself a brew in the well-equipped dinette of the Grand Hotel's posh executive suite.

Putting his feet up on the super polished marble coffee table, he sips the coffee whilst awaiting Hihara's delivery. Though worry for Yunoki was preying on his mind, you couldn't tell from the calm demeanor of the equally polished leading man, who looked more at this moment like a handsome king considering his subjects as he flips out the photo a certain reporter girl snapped of the happy group of students, in youthful days of Seiso Concours gone by...

_We'll get you whole again, old chap._ Kanayan's gaze finally lands on his most needy of children who required him to be their guardian once again, to be a blessing to them...

_Heavy is the head that wears the crown..._


	29. Chapter 29 - Strawberries and Cream

**Chapter 29: "Strawberries and Cream"**

The rest of that Tuesday night floats by as if in a daze. After Hihara brought back to Kanayan the collected soup ingredients, the operation swung right into action. Kaji and Shimizu, upon seeing Hihara tromping back and forth down the hall, had volunteered to beg for some pans and bowls and utensils from the kitchen that Hihara had overlooked to purvey from the store.

Hearing the ruckus in the hall as well, Tsuchiura and even Etou offered to help cook. Both were actually not totally inept in the kitchen, but they ended up being only allowed to chop vegetables and meat under strict instruction.

Kanayan had a top secret recipe and was not letting anyone butt into his kitchen affairs. Sure, it was Kira's suite—complete with dining area and useful kitchenette, but who's counting? And since Tsukimori and Ousaki arrived a little late after Nami gave them a heads-up ring at the Doebling, they got assigned dish washing duty.

_Oh, joy._

Despite the circumstances, it was a rather cozy gathering of the Seiso male alumni. Kanayan was enjoying every second of his boys' squabbles and show-offs, of the way their little group became a cohesive unit when in the benefit of their own. For in spite of his split personality swings and uppity nature, Yunoki Azuma still somehow had managed to keep on good terms with all of the young men present, gaining their friendship, respect, or at least, indifference, for Etou had really only met Seiso's famed legendary Senpai once or twice before Yunoki left for the States.

Yunoki may have had tumultuous failings, but the only one who ever had a real quarrel with the elegant young heir was his very own relation, Kaji Aoi, Yunoki's distant cousin.

He was just as gifted in looks, talent and popularity, but Kaji had something Yunoki lacked. Since they were children, Kaji had the respect of his family to let him make his own choices, forge his own life—right or wrong, good or bad. Kaji Aoi would be his own man soon and he placed the argument before Yunoki—that his more serene, dutiful cousin was just the puppet of his grandmother's strings and would never be a 'real man' until he cut loose from her overpowering influence. This had upset Yunoki then, and Kaji, older and wiser now, could understand why. It had torn his cousin apart to be who his_ family_ wished him to be, more than who he _really_ was.

And this nervous breakdown, two years after that heated disagreement took place in the Seiso library, was the result.

Kaji's regretful mind turns over these depressing thoughts as he's dismissed by Kanayan along with the rest of the group, their mission of mercy accomplished. But was it really? Kaji wished he could march right into Yunoki's room and beg his cousin for forgiveness for the harsh words passed between the two pretty much all their adolescent lives.

_I never knew he was so mixed up inside! I should've helped more. After all, we're family._

Just then his cell phone buried in his pocket sends off a beep. Kaji ducks into a hallway crevice to read the text.

'YOU MUST BE PARTYING HARD NOT TO BE READING MY TEXTS. I CAN'T BLAME YOU THERE! HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, MY BOY!'

It was from his dad and he hadn't looked at it all day. November 12th had come and gone, but Kaji was too sad and too busy to even notice.

_That's right! It's my birthday! And I've been so worried about Yunoki-san, I totally forgot! Wow...I turned eighteen today and it's already almost over. Too bad..._

Kaji looks sadly at his watch. It was well past eleven at night. His birthday was almost over before he even realized it, before a single person had the chance to wish him a '_happy birthday with many returns_', even once.

"Oh, that's all right." Smiling to himself, Kaji was growing up. He understood that Yunoki's health and the upcoming concert were way more important than a silly thing like a birthday, even his eighteenth. He was just spoiled when it came to celebrating his birthday with his loving family, seventeen times before.

Kaji gives one last sigh, for he **so **enjoyed a party—especially one in his honor!

_Oh well, never mind._

He inserts his passkey into his hotel door, going in and changing into his pjs for bed, when the doorbell rings. His slips on his maroon dressing gown to answer the call, never imagining it would be—

"SURPRISE! Happy Birthday and many returns, Aoi-san!" Maybe there wasn't all the fanfare, nor all the decorations or excitement the rich heir associated with a birthday party. There was no crowd of adoring friends and relations, but Kaji Aoi couldn't have been more pleased to have at least one person remember the passing of his important day.

"Mori-san! You remembered!" Kaji was almost in tears, but he sucks them back in. He was eighteen years old now—a man. So he'd better start acting like one! But the thought didn't stop him from feeling as giddy as a kid again—for a few moments, at least.

"How could I forget my favorite boy's special day? Eighteenth birthdays don't come around every year, you know?" Mori smirks. She had planned something bigger, with all the others to be attending, too, but with Yunoki's sad condition and everyone scheduled to watch him, it just was left to her.

"Many, many returns!" If Mori Manami was bold enough to come to the boy's hotel room at this time of night, she was bold enough to stand on tiptoe and plant a kiss on Kaji's shocked lips in the doorway.

_Hey! This is sweet Kaji Aoi! _

Kaji just stands there and blinks in total shocked, but pleased, surprise.

"Aren't you going to let me in?" She cocks her head with a teasing smile and he lets her by in a dazed stupor, not yet remembering that he was in just his pajamas.

"Where have you been all night? I've been waiting!" Mori starts preparing her birthday gift, her turned back to him.

Kaji shrugs, though a grin was beginning to itch his lips as he vainly attempts to peer over her shoulder, wondering what the golden girl's musical fingers were up to.

"All us guys have been helping Kanayan make his 'miraculous healing chicken soup'. I hope it works for Yunoki-san. I feel so bad for him. " He answers a bit distractedly, a pitiable expression mingling with the eager curiosity in his eyes.

"Yes, I know how you feel. I'm scheduled to go on watch in Yunoki's room in a half-hour myself." She explains as she works.

"So..." She turns around with a big bowl of bright red strawberries in one hand, and an even bigger bowl of melted chocolate in the other. "We have until then to enjoy your birthday surprise. It looks like we'll only need two of these—just you and I." Mori reveals a handful of skewers from where she was obscuring them beneath her blouse.

"A fondue party! Oh, I LOVE chocolate-covered strawberries! How did you know, Mori-san?!" Kaji exclaims giddily—so eighteen-year-old adult-like dropping to his knees in excitement as she places the two bowls on the fancy gold-gilt coffee table. The two kneel on the embroidered rug before it.

"I know _everything_ when it comes to you, Kaji Aoi." Mori coos smugly with a self-satisfied air.

Like am overexcited kid, Kaji seizes a skewer and digs right in.

Strawberry juice and chocolate cream threaten to spill everywhere in his haste. Mori leans over and rescues the skewer, trying to catch the big brown drip from hitting the fancy carpeted floor.

"Gotcha!" Mori smiles, despite the sticky choco all over the palm of her hand, just missing her sweater sleeve luckily. She had saved Kaji Aoi's hide yet again.

"Thanks, Mori...san." Kaji's eyes were smiling at her in gratitude as he unconsciously lifts her hand and licks it, like he did when he was child. Even she almost blushes, despite the gooey mess.

"I'm so glad you were here, to celebrate my birthday with me." He looks at her with puppy dog eyes.

"And thanks for being there to bail me out when I mess things up, like a true friend I can always count on." Kaji whispers, getting all sentimental and dripping his own flavor of sweetness into Mori's pleased eyes.

"That's because we just go so well together—like strawberries and cream." Stuffing a whole chocolate covered strawberry she had dipped into Kaji's cute mouth, Mori yet again brings a giggle to the room, soon filled with the scent of warmed chocolate and berries.


	30. Chapter 30 - Turn a New Leaf

**Chapter 30: "Turn a New Leaf"**

Wednesday morning finds Yunoki Azuma in better condition than the Viennese doctor expected, for Kanayan's _'Miraculous Chicken Soup Cure'_ really did seem to help speed the indigo haired man's recovery.

Or perhaps it was the unfailing love and attention lavished upon the rich heir by his friends, sister and fiancee—especially the latter.

Takashina Ayano had been Yunoki's constant companion all through his hard night. Even devoted Miyabi had dropped off to sleep, on Hihara's bed, snuggling the absent OB's muffler all night for comforting support.

But not Ayano. She never left his side for a moment throughout the night, most of it spent holding his clammy, delirious hand in her warm, comforting one. All the other girls reveled in how loyal the dark haired little lady was, telling of her constant devotion to the boys when some came up to deliver more of Kanayan's soup.

And when, early in the morning, Yunoki finally awakens, it's Ayano's eyes he first meets—and smiles to.

Enthralled with the genuine meaning behind his kind look, Ayano felt a glow inside that spurred her, despite her long, anxious and sleepless night, to energetically administer his medicine and lovingly serve him the 'Miracle Broth' that Kanayan and the boys had whipped up last night in his honor.

* * *

Mizue was the last member of 'Girl Power' watch who was on duty when the purple prince awakened. Miyabi was fast asleep in Hihara's bed in the other room, but she hadn't the heart to wake the poor girl up, Mizue determining to take double duty. So she just watches from afar as she views Ayano doing a fine job on her own. Mizue, in  
training to be a nurse herself, silently congratulates the timid girl's fluid movements in her task, as Ayano helps prop the weakened man up, comb his askew hair back, fluff up his pillows, then gently help him walk to the bathroom as she re-fixes the mussed bedding. And when he returns, she softly covers him up again. She practically spoonfed him the soup Mizue had warmed up for her. The watchful friend marvels at how the shy, small little waif of a girl turned into a capable young woman, tenderly caring for her frail lover, whose expression was often wistfully mournful as he watched Ayano at work with his ministrations from where he sat in his indigo yukata robe.

It was poetic scenes like this played before her unobtrusive eyes that made Mizue proud to be a nurse-to make a difference, to see someone give of themselves selflessly in the care of another human being in their hour of need. It made her proud to be alive.

Mizue lets Ayano prove this to her love—and to herself. So she quietly observes from the sidelines, giving the sheltered little rich girl her moment to shine in Yunoki Azuma's newly awakened eyes, in more ways than one.

_I wish Ryo would look at me like that...someday..._

Mizue's own dreams of unrequited love burst forth from her heart as she witnesses Yunoki's awareness of Ayano's true love of him as if for the first time. His body was still weak, but his distressed mind was becoming clear in the realization that Ayano might be the one to put all the jumbled puzzle pieces of his hollow life together into  
something new, beautiful, and fulfilling.

_Knock knock knock_

"Oh," Mizue lifts the clouds of her own cumulus thoughts of love's poetry when a soft knock comes to the door, and the nurse-in-training rushes to it as not to disturb the touching tableau at Yunoki's bedside.

Getting to the door in a hushed rush, Mizue finds herself face to face with the handsome hero of her own heart, though Tsuchiura Ryotaro would hardly want to be described in such storybook terms.

"So what's going on in there? How is he?" Tsuchiura had felt compelled, for some reason, to stop by at the patient's room to inquire of his well-being before sprinting off to his own clandestine affairs. But he hadn't expected to be greeted by Mizue or to be shoved out into the hallway by her, either.

"Yunoki-san's fine. He just woke up a few minutes ago. Ayano's feeding him that soup you boys concocted right now. I've been trying to stay low key and out of their way all morning. I think we should leave them alone for now." Mizue whispers gently.

"Why?" Tsuchiura asks, oblivious of any little thing such as tact or consideration.

"You really don't get it, do you, Ryo?" Mizue throws up her hands in frustration of how obtuse this muscled jock could be when it came to matters of the heart. "You never, ever do." She whispers on the side, holding her pounding head to shield him from seeing the tears forming in her eyes. Her own heart was in such pain about the young man standing in confusion before her.

But he did see them, and wanted to stop them, though he still didn't understand how or why. But just then, Amou Nami's hand waves mimingly in the distance, drawing nearer as she speaks to them in the hall.

"Relieved of duty, Sister Mizue! How's our boy?" Amou, full of life, races up to the uncomfortable pair, before Tsuchiura even has a chance to be answered.

"He's awake and being fed his meal. Ayano's taking good care of him, so..." Mizue trails off, her eyes and Amou's speaking to each other of the latest romantic update in unspoken terms most men would never comprehend. Especially not this one.

"Lay low. Got it." Peeking in at the sweet scene of Ayano nursing a sweetly chuckling Yunoki, Amou and Mizue lightly 'high-five' each other with a shared smile of complete understanding, ignoring their male observer as if he wasn't even there.

"You don't look so hot yourself, babe. Why don't you get out for some fresh air? I've just been for a brisk walk-it's glorious out there! You've been cooped up in here too long, when there's a wondrous city called Vienna to explore!" Amou bubbles, the optimist in her happy for good news in every direction today after yesterday's low.

"Look, Sakimoto, Amou," Tsuchiura interrupts their girl-talk, "tell Yunoki-senpai I'm glad he's feeling better and..." Tsuchiura pauses as if he wanted to say more to the brown-haired girl, but dared not in Amou's presence, if ever he would anyway.

"I've gotta get going. See ya." He says in a hurry, claiming an escape down the hallway and disappearing into the elevator door.

"Big lug." Amou says, rolling her eyes in disgust, then giving a quick hug and salute, mouthing 'Go get some air, girl' to Mizue before stealthily entering the hotel room where the patient and his nurse were emotionally becoming aware of each other.

Sighing, Mizue decides to follow their leader's orders. She silently goes to her own room, careful not to awaken Shouji yet at this early 7AM hour, then collects herself and dresses warmly. She puts on her hat and coat and takes the elevator down, trying not to think of a certain dark green haired person. She made her mind up not to waste another second of pining or dreaming about that great big, inconsiderate, unaffectionate, non-responsive—

Love of her life.

Her whole life, for almost as long as she could remember, he was the big, strong boy next door. The powerful, popular star athlete, the gorgeous, muscular heartthrob Mizue Sakimoto knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with-—only to discover, after a brief relationship—that he didn't feel the same way. In every dispassionate word or inattentive look, Tsuchiura Ryotaro wasn't ready for commitment to anyone, not even his sports or friends—not anything—same for his music.

It was just recently, well two years since now, that Mizue learned of Tsuchiura's love for the piano. She knew his mother was piano teacher, but so were a lot of other kids' parents-and they didn't  
become genius pianists who competed in national competitions and practically ran away with the show! He was gifted, no doubt about it. Mizue admired how smoothly, with such ease, the big fingered sportsman glided across the ivory keys as if he were one with the instrument. She enjoyed listening to his playing immensely and wished when he played, it would be for her...just once in a while.

But Ryo wasn't that type of guy. He wasn't a romanticist at all—except when it came to his love of music. He loved it. Mizue could see how intensely he played, how absorbed and complete he'd become at the piano, and she'd promised herself to support him in it, like she did in his soccer playing, basketball, or any other sport he took on. Through it all, Mizue hoped he'd turn to her for strength, to confide all his hopes to, that one day, she'd be the one there to back him up.

But it seemed Hino Kahoko got that inimitable role and not her. He never confided in Mizue about anything anymore.

_Oh, Ryo..._

_'Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean. Tears from the depth of some divine despair, rise in the heart and gather in the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn fields, And thinking of the days that are no more...'_

The cold tears her beloved Tennyson spoke so eloquently of, sting Mizue's eyes and hit her unhappy cheeks, red with the cold fresh air as she blindly walks the avenue outside the hotel. It took her wandering legs down strange, foreign streets and busy, unfamiliar roads.

Lost in the Austrian foreign city, Mizue was about to produce her cell phone and call a taxi or Ousaki-san or Director Kira, or anybody, when her blurred eyes catch a disturbing sight. There, before a large, ornate building, a block or two away, stood Tsuchiura. He was talking to someone and laughing, she was certain. And it wasn't one of their friends—it was that dark-haired older woman with a nice figure.

Jealously wanting to get a better look, Mizue walks as fast as she could to glimpse the woman that Tsuchiura was obviously _very_ familiar with, judging from the way the pair were chatting and smiling at each other as they were walking up the steps into the building. At the top of the staircase, the woman even puts her arms around Ryo and embraces him warmly.

A sleepless Mizue was so blinded by jealousy and rampant curiosity, as well as anger, that she recklessly walks into the street, crossing it quite illegally, not seeing the speeding cars on the 'wrong side' of the road to her, nor the screeching tires that were just a little too late to stop completely before—

**_SCREEEEEEEEECH!_**

Turning just in time to see the car's shining front bumper spin away from her, Mizue feels a pair of long arms and large hands grab her and pull her out of the way. She hadn't seen Tsuchiura Ryotaro sense she was in danger, come barreling down the stairs like a full linebacker, race across the street to leap and dive like a soccer pro, and tug her frozen in place body from the line of traffic threatening to hit her, like a hero.

Stunned by his swift actions, Mizue watches in horror as Tsuchiura envelops her smaller body in his larger one, and takes the force of the blow as his shoulder is slammed against a concrete bench on the other side of the street. The kinetic gravity hits hard as they go down, as Mizue shakes off the stun and opens her eyes wide.

"Ryo! Ryo! Are you okay?!** RYO!"** Mizue cries out, looking up to see the teeth clenched in pain on her rescuer's face.

"I'm all right. Just got the wind knocked out of me." He tries to ignore the stabbing pain manfully, but as Mizue helps him up to his feet, the blood that soaks her once white glove was more than enough proof for her to know he was hurt badly.

"No, you're not all right! You're bleeding! Oh, Ryo!" She cries, blaming her own head-in-the-clouds stupidity for harming someone so precious to her heart, as she examines the fresh wound through horrified eyes, maneuvering him to a nearby bench..

"Thank goodness it didn't penetrate a few epidermal layers deeper, or you'd be in serious trouble!" Mizue's nursing training kicks in, as she strips him of his jacket and inspects the gash through his ripped shirt. She immediately goes to work, as she expertly tears some cotton bandages she always kept at the ready in her handbag. After cleaning the wound gingerly with hydrogen peroxide and iodine, she quickly applies the bandages to the gashed wound on his left shoulder blade.

"Did they teach you all that in that nursing school of yours?" Tsuchiura asks to brace himself manfully with a grunting smile as Mizue gently, but firmly, presses the bandage in place, applying direct pressure.

_So you did notice._ She thinks to herself.

"Sit up, please, it'll slow the blood flow." Mizue says knowledgeably, as she continues the pressure, checking the bleeding, but Tsuchiura stands up instead, giving her a thumbs up smirk.

"I'm good now." He works in his shoulder muscles nonchalantly, then grits his teeth, denying the ensuing pain.

"Ryo! You have to stay still! So the clot will form!" Mizue yells at him as she jumps to her feet in pursuit of the injured man.

"I've got to be at the audition inside that building in ten minutes."

"Audition? What for?" Mizue asks candidly, looking at the building to see the woman hugging Ryo earlier still standing there with concern etched on her face.

"The International Beethoven Piano Competition. It's held here in Vienna in June. Tsuzuki-san is sponsoring me."

"Why didn't you tell me, instead of sneaking off every morning like some sort of Don Juan?" Her sensibilities were hurt by his silence on the matter. Mizue questions him, her hand still pressing his back, her brows dark.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to nursing school?" Tsuchiura bites back with his own question.

After sharing a glare, they both break out in relieved chuckles at each other—and their own mirrored, stubborn foolishness. Tsuzuki Mari is grateful to hear the laughter as she makes her way over to the pair, worried when she saw Tsuchiura dash out into traffic to rescue his girl.

"I'm glad to see you both in one piece. There are such things as crosswalks, even in Vienna, children." Tsuzuki Mari speaks in her bestschoolmarm tone, despite her smile.

"Yes, ma'am." Tsuchiura answers, smiling at Mizue, who keeps her hand pressed firmly yet gently against his back.

"Yes, ma'am." She smiles, all thoughts of jealousy dispelled in Tsuzuki Mari's concerned smile. Mizue swears to herself not to let her oversensitive imagination run away with her again.

"When I saw you were in Sakimoto-san's care, I thought to go inside and move the time forward as much as possible, but the best I could do is to have your audition arranged in an hour instead. Are you up for it?" Mari surveys the scene as Mizue reveals the bandage on Tsuchiura's shoulder. He exchanges a look with Mizue, who still looked rather shaken and frozen.

And for once in his life, Ryo notices. Sturdy Mizue was shaking in every fiber of her body, as she puts his jacket carefully back on.

"I know I should've told you, of all people, everything." Tsuchiura unexpectedly goes down on his knees at her feet, clenching his teeth as he clutches her surprised hand in both of his big ones. "But this is my one chance to prove myself to the whole musical field. Please let me play." He says uncharacteristically, in a humble prostrate state.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you before! I saw my entire world just flash before my eyes just now, Mizue. If I lost you..." He trails off a little desperately.

"I promise to let you drag me off to the hospital, or wherever you want as soon as the audition is over. I won't complain, I swear. And I won't keep any more secrets from you from now on, Mizue. I care too much about you to have you worry about me again." Tsuchiura doesn't even realize what he's just said straight from his heart, but he was glad he'd finally said it.

Mizue's uncertain eyes light up like a burst of sunlight at his desperate speech and especially the one simple word she's waited her entire life to hear come from his lips.

_Mizue...my name..._

_He cares for me...I'm important to him..._

She stifles the tears threatening to flow down. At a loss, she stands on tiptoe and bestows upon Tsuchiura's surprised cheek a jubilant pleased kiss.

"That's for luck."

"Whoa." Tsuchiura smirks, so confused by this new sensation given by his nurse, as well as his new-found feelings for her that he really didn't feel the 'scratch' on his back anymore. He felt nothing but the warmth of her bright sunlight on his face.

"I'm gonna ace that audition today, and then I'm gonna win the competition, too...for you, Mizue." Tsuchiura smiles down at the girl whose proud eyes on him were filled with the gleam of pure light as the three cross the road—at the crosswalk this time.

Displaying all of his power and skill upon the ivory keys he knew so well, Tsuchiura does indeed play on the piano his impressive repertoire starting with Chopin's most auspicious works, and finishing with Beethoven's 'Fur Elise'..._For Mizue_... He played it as never before with tenderness and meaning, wowing the Vienna judges and not feeling the pain, as Mizue's smile nurses his shoulder as well as healing his heart back to health. When finished with his mastery  
playing, Mizue claps for him loudest of all, vowing to always be there for him, as his music fills her heart as well. She was so glad that his dreams, too, were being fulfilled as tears of joy fill her eyes.

Practically assured of being accepted, if the applauding response was any judge, to participate at the International Beethoven Competition by the audition's successful end.

* * *

Afterwards, Tsuchiura is as good as his word and Mizue takes him to the hospital as Tsuzuki Mari returns to the hotel to inform the Director and the others of Tsuchiura's hopeful good news.

After being released from the hospital with the doctor's proud words at Mizue's skillful ministrations, and offer of a much needed nursing post at this Vienna hospital, the full day spent in the sun of this pair is topped off for Mizue when Tsuchiura instructs the cab driver, in the best try at flubbed German as he could muster, to take them on a tour of the famed city's sights.

Mizue is ecstatic as the taxi takes the pair down the shoreline of the beautiful blue Danube, just as she had envisioned it in her dreams.

"The Danube! Ryo, you did hear me." Mizue fights back tears of gratitude as Tsuchiura tells the taxi to wait for them. The two then slowly walk up the hilly path to gaze over the Danube's gorgeous rippling waters, side by side.

"Are you sure your shoulder isn't too painful for this walk?" Mizue stops halfway up the path to ask her 'patient.' She suddenly remembered his recent wound and the nurse in her longed to gently massage his pain away.

"I feel fine." He smiles contentedly at her soft touch upon his body.

"But—" She was a caring nurse in her protest, albeit unconvincingly, for her eyes were suddenly dazzled by Vienna's most beautiful sight's promise on the horizon.

"There's something up there I have to show you." He says with a mysterious wink in his eye.

"Ryo? What do you mean? You haven't been here before, either!" Mizue giggles, attaching herself to his strong arm.

"Nope! But I know something that'll be there." He says, eyes sparkling. Perhaps the romance of Vienna was affecting him as well. Mizue revels in the new look that he was giving her while the poet in her swooned under her Prince Charming's gaze at last.

"What?" She giggles with glee. "I thought we said we'd have '_no more secrets, ever_'." She quotes the sweet line he'd said to her that afternoon.

"Hey! This is special!" Tsuchiura shakes his laughing head at her, as he pulls her up a particularly steep side of the hill to reveal—

"Oh, Ryo...!" Mizue's breath is taken away by the awesome scene of the orangey sunset between two frosty mountain peaks. All the glorious backdrop of the softly cresting waves of the Blue Danube's peaceful waters was broken only by a crane swooping down to touch them. Mizue loses herself in the beauty that only a poet's soul could fully comprehend.

'_The Beautiful Blue __Danube__._.."

Mizue begins to recite one of her favorite poems of the breathtaking landscape of her dreams.

"'..._And still the violas are playing that good old wordless rhyme, and still the two are swaying in perfect tune and time...If the great bassoons that mutter, if the clarinetist that blow, were given the chance to utter the secret thing they know' _- Eller Wheeler Wilcox.'"

Mizue quotes her favorite passage of the historic city. She felt it so fitting to be sitting here, on a Vienna hill, at sunset with her musical lover at her side.

"Look! There it is! Just as I told you. I knew he'd be here. Old Taiyo never failed me yet." Tsuchiura chuckles at his own joke as he points at the red and orange sunset sinking beneath the hills. Mizue had just come short of slapping his poor back, but luckily caught herself, to rub it tenderly instead.

Nonetheless, the sunset was truly spectacular, And so was the beautiful Danube...and this glorious day that would go down forever in Sakimoto Mizue's memory book of love. Tsuchiura Ryotaro points at the gorgeous sunset, just sinking between the two mountains, as if to join them together in its soft, warm glove, as Mizue's hand slipsinto his, just as warm and just as soft as the flowing river's tides...


	31. Chapter 31 - A Rose By Any Other Name

**Chapter 31: "A Rose By Any Other Name.."**

This afternoon, Amou Nami was thoroughly enjoying being treated to some of those famed Viennese cookies and confections by the henna red-haired college graduate who made it his policy to indulge in the simple joys of life for all their merits while one had the chance.

"I was thinking..." Ousaki says out of the blue to the girl walking beside him on the quiet, early evening Ringstrausse Avenue they were strolling down, after the two had enjoyed cocoa and cookies at a Vienna café the pleasant man was a regular frequenter of.

"Yes? Shinobu-san?" Amou Nami says noncommittally, in between busy snapshots with her flashing camera of the passing scenery's lavish cornucopia of landscape.

"Well..." Ousaki never before felt so uncertain of words that generally came so easily to the gracious genially spoken man.

"I was thinking." He repeats, grasping for the right ones to say.

"You said that already." Amou chuckles at the silly man, as she, self absorbed, checks out how some of her scenic shots had come out.

"Yes, well, I _was_ thinking—" Ousaki stops himself with soft smile, clearing his throat as he watches Amou stop a group of Vienna school children on their way home for a perfect photo pose.

"Do you like to travel, Nami-san?" Ousaki finally spits out the planned words in a hurried rush.

"Why... yes... yes, I love travel! Going to exciting new places I've never been before, seeing the gleaming world waiting out there through a brand new camera lens!" Her eyes glisten at the mere thought, and Amou loses herself for a moment in her far-flung fantasy as she raises one free hand, pointing high to the limitless sky.

"Why do you ask?" Amou kneels right back down, returning to her subject without missing a beat and finishes the shot with a kind pat on the cheek of the giggling sweet faced little blonde girl.

"Because..." Ousaki was actually chickening under Amou's investigative stare, finally come to full curious focus on him.

"Because?" She inquisitively raises an only semi-preoccupied brow back at him.

"Because... Oh! You've dropped your hat, little one!" Kind-hearted Ousaki scoops up the fallen cap from the lightly dusted snowy ground and dashes over to the small youth. He replaces the cap on the frightened little girl with a disarming smile and a generously produced stick of candy, which is greedily accepted. Before Ousaki had a chance to turn around, an entire gaggle of youngsters was swarming him, all waiting for sweets of their own from the kindly foreign "_Herr Lesebrille_" or 'Mr. Eyeglasses.'

Ousaki Shinobu doesn't disappoint either, as he happily passes out as much candy as he had stashed in his coat pockets. Then, when emptied of his sweet bribes, he generously lavishes the growing crowd of schoolchildren with coins in Euro cents for them to take to the candy store themselves.

Seeing that the touching tableau was perfect for her magazine article that she was working on in documenting this European trip for her college report, Amou takes many pictures of the "Nice Big Brother" benignly handing out candy and coins to the happy children. With the troop of laughing kids and smiling little faces surrounding Ousaki Shinobu, it was something like Father Christmas and the Pied Piper combined into one lovely, bespectacled creature, who brought pure rainbows and sunshine to a cold, gloomy world.

Amou stifles a blissful sigh. She was determined not to let a good 'juicy story' be tainted by girlish dreams of grandeur. But every thought she had was a solid truth—and the hard-nosed investigative reporter in her knew it.

Ousaki Shinobu was utterly good. Especially when it came to the children. Children always seemed to be able to sense goodness better than adults ever could. And her Shinobu was the meaning of goodness itself.

"Sorry about that, Nami-san! But the children are so innocent and sweet... I guess, I'm weak against their smiles." Ousaki smile was irresistible itself, as he gives the last lucky tiny straggler a handful of all the coins he had left in his outstretched hand before it gives the giddy waif a fatherly wave farewell.

"I understand how you feel completely." Amou smiles, taking a secret shot of him as she pretends to be cleaning her camera's lens.

"Yes, you always do." Ousaki says meaningfully, pausing on the Ringstrausse corner to turn to Amou. He seemed to decide to finally say something, as he takes her left hand in his right one with a pleasant deep eyed smile.

"That's one of the things I like most about you, Amou Nami. you're a very special individual, and I would like—" Ousaki doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence, when Hihara Kazuki's familiar high strains ring loudly throughout the streets calling to them. Amou shoots the vivid green haired young man dashing up to where they were a dirty look. But oblivious Hihara doesn't catch on too quickly, does he?

"Ousaki-senpai! Amou-san!" Boisterous, life of the party Hihara Kazuki strikes again, the plummy purple haired girl on his arm too pleased with the universe today to ever think to cramp Hihara's bubbliness and joy upon the world, but even she could see her friend Amou-san's displeasure at their rude interruption.

"Yunoki's feeling so much better! He said that soup we guys made with Kanayan must've done the trick!" Hihara calls out for all of Vienna to hear even though he was still fairly far across the street.

"That's wonderful, Hihara-kun!" Ousaki responds in kind, raising the volume of his usually soft tones to greet his noisy friend. A big smile comes over his slightly embarrassed face as he withdraws his hand from Amou's. She, on the other hand, was not so pleasantly amused at the missed moment, having a feeling from the look on Ousaki's reddish face to rival his reddish hair that the subject—whatever it was—was not going to come up again this evening.

"Yeah, that's wonderful." She glowers in the corner with more than a little less of her usual pep, as she silently gives Hihara the evil eye.

But Hihara _never_ notices anything!

"You should see him!" The trumpet player continues on his tirade. "Yunoki is eating well and talking like normal—really really normal—and—Oww!" Hihara suddenly feels Miyabi pinch the nap of his neck. She, for one, did get the hint from Amou to buzz off.

"We were just going to the pharmacy for some medicine refills." Miyabi's little voice interrupts as she elbows her way through her astonished friend.

"We have to get going, Kazuki-senpai! We'll see you two later." She smiles through her teeth at Amou and Ousaki's wondering stares.

"But I wanted to tell—" Hihara starts to say.

"Now! Kazuki-senpai." Her tiny voice says quite authoritatively, Hihara happily obeying his little mistress with a quick shrugged shoulder "Bye!" as he's pulled and tugged off by her diminutive form.

Ousaki and Amou share a quizzical smile in each other's eyes, followed by a relieved laugh at the retreating comical pair.

"I hope Hihara-kun never changes." Ousaki comments of his goodhearted, albeit emotionally clumsy friend.

"With Miyabi-chan to back him up—I doubt he ever will get the chance. The two of them are one-of-a-kind." Amou mixes her metaphors as she and Ousaki continue to share a comfortable chuckle.

"Thank Heaven they found each other, then." Ousaki answers, tipping his beret to the One Above with an inspired smile as they continue to walk arm in arm, camera a-clicking away down the soon to be dusk Austrian avenues.

* * *

"I really didn't mean to say anything wrong, Miyabi-chan! But sometimes my mouth gets unhinged! I guess it's used to blowing hot air all the time. I'm just a dumb trumpet player, who doesn't know how to ever shut off. I wish I could learn how..." Hihara Kazuki says with a smiled sigh in a somewhat dejected manner as he walks alongside her.

But even that sad sweet face in Miyabi's lovestruck eyes was cute. Even his apologies were uplifting to her tried and tested spirits for she knew he was really as joyous as she was inside at her brother's recovery to really be kept down for long. Miyabi Yunoki was determined not to let the shining firefly who was Hihara Kazuki ever be sad again, if she had any say to it.

"I know!" She suddenly cries out, almost startling the older, not yet wiser, young man wearing the sad expression beside her.

"I struggle with the very same problem every day! So why don't we help each other! I have an idea!" Miyabi's adorable little face with the larger-than-life big baby eyes was so sincere as she looks up at him, Hihara's attention was all hers.

"Whenever I feel you're about to say something wrong, I'll do..." The wheels in Miyabi's head was spinning so quickly that there was almost smoke visible to Hihara's bemused eyes.

"This!" She abruptly grabs hold of his unsuspecting left-hand and gives it a rather tight squeeze. Indeed, the swift action stymies Hihara, but perhaps more from the palpitations in his boyish heart than in any acknowledgment of the coded message for silence from his fellow scapegrace.

"Then you'll know to keep quiet and you won't get into any trouble anymore! And you can do the same to me, when I step in it!" Miyabi announces happily, quite unaware of the emotional rollercoaster ride she was subjecting Hihara to with just the touch of her hand.

"So as long as you and these pretty little hands are with me, I'll never get in trouble again!" After a few seconds of getting in contact with his brain again, Hihara merrily exclaims with a great big grin at the blushing girl as he takes her 'warning' palm in his, giving it a warm squeeze of his own.

Miyabi looks up to the dashingly dishy sport-jacketed young man holding her hand with a delirious nod.

"Right! If we both promise to watch each other's loose tongues, both our big mouths will be safe!" Grinning with just as much enthusiasm, Miyabi squeezes the big tanned hand with her small pale one, feeling the sparkles behind her own eyes glow along with the amazing sunset above the city.

"Deal! Miyabi-chan! Let's go tell Yunoki of our pact!" With a bright wink and a smile, Hihara wraps his big hand around Miyabi's small one as they run down the avenue together, both vowing never to let go ever again.

* * *

_Another couple enjoying the __Vienna__'s romantic Ringstrausse at dusk..._

"I have a feeling you came here everyday." Hino Kahoko remarks, contentedly breathing in the crispy cool, yet unseasonably warm November day in Austria. Her big golden tan eyes drink in the gorgeous sun-setting heavens above with a blissful sigh. For the falling dusk of the Vienna skyscape wasn't the only gorgeous thing in Hino Kahoko's purview. Her glance takes her back to the stunning young man lying at rest beside her.

Tsukimori Len was every bit as breathtaking to her as this most dazzling sunset or the hauntingly bewitching autumn trees cascading multicolored leaves around them. Amidst those fallen leaves, Hino revels in the crunch of each one beneath her prone body as she reaches a hand out to her love to waken him.

The pair had strolled and strolled for hours around the Vienna park this day, it carving a special place now in both their memories as the forever cherished spot where the couple were reunited by musical winds that had brought them together once again.

Following the traces of those winds an hour that seemed mere moments ago, Hino had taken it to her fancy to kneel down and let her wandering fingers dance with the swirling waltz of the reds and golds of the trees' discarded seasonal offspring. The warming sun's descent had cast a languid feel to the sweet smelling air, and before she knew it, the redheaded Hino Kahoko found herself stretching out on the leafy autumn blanket, looking quite becoming as part of it.

And to her surprise, instead of awkwardly keeping his stiffened stance over her or advising her to get up off the strewn leaf scattered ground, Tsukimori had knelt down at her side. He had paused and looked down dreamily at her face, as if he wanted to say something and was deciding if this was the right moment to approach the subject.

But when her lovely contented eyes closed softly in reverent bliss, Len had opted to simply lie quietly beside her, and follow her example.

Her hand taken in his, Tsukimori had then closed his eyes to absorb the romantic atmosphere at his beloved's side and the two had remained that way for some peaceful time under the beautiful sunset until she broke the contented silence just now.

"I have the feeling you came here every day—because I would have." Hino repeats her delirious statement, eyes glimmering with an especially vivid gold reflected in the falling sunset she was admiring the scenery under.

"You did, didn't you?" Hino whispers, well aware her fellow rester was not truly aslumber, since the rhythm of his staccato breaths gave his anxietous repose away.

"Hmm?" Tsukimori's distracted mind was a thousand miles hence, though truthfully never far from her, today as much as it never has been these past two years, his thoughts always with her. The faraway dreamy expression as he drifts back from imagination to reality was so cute Hino can't help herself but giggle at the bewildered look crossing his normally stoic face.

"I asked if you came here often during your time here. I can't see anyone not coming every chance possible, this park is so beautiful." Hino Kahoko wistfully gazes over the landscape.

"It is." Len answers spacily, returning to the preoccupied smile as he heaves himself up, propping up on one arm to lean over her.

"What I mean is, I did... often... come here, that is." He struggles over the words at her quizzical glance up at him. Hino chuckles at the perplexed look coming over his flustered face gazing down at her as he tries to collect his thoughts.

"What have you been thinking about?" Hino, mildly suspicious, asks her introspective boyfriend as he continues to hover over her prostrate form.

"Oh, I—Kahoko?" Tsukimori gazes down at her, his eyes traveling from her large doe-like eyes to her pink moist lips, down her thin neckline.

"A-hem." The gentleman in Tsukimori Len recalls himself and suddenly clears his throat, a serious tone coming to his voice as he repeats her name.

"Kahoko?"

"Yes, Tsukimori-kun?" Hino answers his familiar name of her with her more respectful title of him.

The fact of which that seemed to unsettle Tsukimori's semi-resolved mind, he either losing train of thought or nerve, turning to another point of interest that had been preying on him instead.

"Kahoko?

"Yes, Tsukimori-kun?" Hino was starting to feel playful at this inquisitive game he was playing with her. She flutters her eyelids up to him, not able to coherently think of anything else but how beautiful his blue hair looked highlighted by the sunset behind him.

Which, in doing, her fluttering eyelids try Tsukimori Len's determination yet again, to no end. Closing his eyes, he steels himself to persevere nonetheless.

"Kahoko." He clears his throat and begins for the fourth time, fully sitting up because it made him feel more in control, if for no other obvious reason.

"You know how I feel about you." He starts, his eyes fixed on a distant falcon flying above in the sky, its lofty ascent giving his quiet heart courage.

"Yes. And you know how I feel about you." Hino's blush softens into a smile as she sits up and Tsukimori lifts her to her feet with him as he looks intensely into her eyes with a question burning in his.

"Then why won't you ever call me by my first name?" There, he  
finally broached the other subject that had been bothering the young man for some time since their relationship began to become serious.

"Oh." Hino felt her cheeks flush under his questioning gaze, tucking her hands into her maize gold knit sweater nervously.

How could she explain what she didn't fully understand herself? In her mind, in her heart, she did indeed say the name 'Len' so many times, she dared not try to count. In every daydream, in every night fantasy, that single syllable was more pronounced than many a poem or rhyme. But only in the quiet of Kahoko's mind was where an  
idyllic daring girl bold enough to cross that unspoken line between where gracious respectful reverence gave way to affectionate familiar intimate address existed.

Embarrassed by her own foolishness, Kahoko turns her back to him, as not to reveal her reddened face.

"Kahoko. Forgive me. I didn't mean to—" Tsukimori wraps his arms around her back desperately, never wishing to cause his love any  
discomfort due to his silly whims. But he had only longed to hear her beautiful voice utter his name, if just once...so his mind could replay the sound of its tone color repeating endlessly...

"I love you... **_Len_**_._" Kahoko announces suddenly, spinning around to face him. A light comes to her dazzling smile from somewhere inside as she fondly emphasizes the last word of her profound sentence. Once said, she giggles happily with the pent-up desire of many suppressed fantasies shared with her_ Len_ liberated, showing her mirth by embracing both his cheeks in her longing hands and finding his beautiful face physically real cupped between them at last.

**_Len._**

It came more easily than she had expected. After all, it was the first and last word whispered on her lips each and every day since he left for Vienna. And it's the only word she wanted to carry her into her eternity...

"I love you,**_ Kahoko_**." Tsukimori Len responds as a perfect lover should, adoring golden eyes gazing upon her blissful features with a pleased smile as his musical hands lace into her hair in kind, thinking how lucky he was to have a treasure like this special girl in his arms again. He then kisses her transmuted mahogany-in-the-sunset hair over and over with a breathily whispered "_Thank you"_ in her ear.

The two of them stand, soaking up the glow of their love in the atmosphere. They hold one another dear this rapturous embrace long into the falling sunset, the warmth of their love for one another sheltering both from the cool winds of the European early evening that swirled around them.

Beneath the emerging moon's light, the rustling autumn leaves whisper to the spreading tree limbs now bowing in rhythm with the glorious music that intertwined the names with a golden cord:

_Len and Kahoko…_


	32. Chapter 32 - Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life

**Chapter 32: "Oh! Sweet Mystery of Life"**

In the middle of the night, Yunoki had awoken and politely shooed away the 'Girl Power Guard.' An exhausted Miyabi didn't need much prodding from her brother on this, as she calls Shouji, Sakimoto and Fuyuumi to cancel their respective shifts. After enduring a final dose of 'Kanayan's Miracle Broth,' Yunoki decided he was fit enough to leave his convalescent sickroom. So afterwards, he escorts Miyabi to their adjoining room and tucks the sleepy girl into her long abandoned bed. This time, he shows much more genuine familial warmth as he even kisses her on forehead, assuring her of his improved health due to her kindness and care.

Back in his room, Yunoki decides to shower. The hot water cascading down manages to cleanse much more than his body alone. By the time he'd stepped out and the steam cleared, he felt quite a different man than he'd felt in a very long time.

Wiping the cloudy steam away, Yunoki gazes up curiously cautious at the gaunt eyed and drawn person staring back at him in the large, ornate bathroom mirror.

_So, who are you today?_

This was his usual query that he'd unconsciously greeted himself with every time his dulled eyes met a looking glass. The elegantly refined, yet confused young man was already twenty years old, and still had gathered so many different reflections in countless mirrors over the course of his formative youth that he was almost reluctant to look into this one, this day.

_Who are you going to be now? _

But he need not have worried, for a wondrous transformation had occurred in his moment of trial, as he found no longer listless, but now curious eyes, full of a new life offered, gazing back at him beneath the slicked, wet hair. Surprised by this singular reflection cast upon himself for the very first time, Yunoki rubs the steamy wet mirror as it clouds up again, to make sure he was not mistaken.

_Yes, it's still there._ There was new light in his eyes, never before seen—a new unforeseen glimmer of light, one called 'love.' It was something he'd never imagined possible for his jaded life to include. The hope that she had sparked in him to glimpse in her was fresh and enticing.

Yunoki's no longer clouded mind mirrors the mirror, as its sparkling clean crystal glass clears of all the smoky steam once coating it so completely, just moments ago, now vanished.

He could see himself truly, lucidly, for the first time.

_And she still loves me...despite witnessing both disparate sides of my life's mystery...Is there really someone who wishes to share in my story? With all its ups and downs, rights and wrongs? Someone who'll embrace my whims and is willing to change to suit me with an unconditional love I didn't give myself the chance to appreciate before? Could little Ayano truly equal my understanding that true freedom is having hold of someone's heart and never letting go, even as all the hidden intricacies in its depths are revealed?_

"Ayano..."

He had realized that in that agonized moment, when the pain had passed, and all became clear—that Ayano's devoted, undying love was the one constant in his unstable and disturbed heart.

Yunoki had performed all his ablutions and dressed himself, all whilst entertaining these soulful thoughts. Looking quite dapper, despite his severe gauntness, in his lavender muffler and pullover sweater, he quietly heads to the plush armchair pulled to his bedside, that Ayano was dozing peacefully upon. This was her third sleepless night at his side, and it had worn the poor girl out entirely.

The indigo-haired man stares at her for a moment. His eyes glaze over, as he gently places his left hand on her slumbering cheek. Ayano's dozing eyes flutter open as his deep, yet kind voice was a pleasant mixture of both the dark and light sides of his soul. Tested by fire, they had merged into a new mysterious creature, who now longed to understand love as well, and be given the significance of its beauty.

For she had given him the desire to live again.

"Azuma-sa..." Ayano begins to breathe awake with a start, eyes opening wide at her fiance's gentle eyes smiling at her. He stops her words with a tender finger to her lips. She was not at all frightened though, as she had been days ago. She could feel the change in his gaze as he soothes her tired cheek, and runs his flutist's fingers through her long ebony tresses.

"You've selflessly looked after me and made me well, Ayano. Now it's my turn to look after you." He whispers, lifting her tired and weak petite framed body in his own thin arms from the chair. He holds her against his chest as he carries her over to his still unmade bed and lays her upon its folds gently.

Ayano's heartbeats were as peaceful as the tender, calming mood that her love's genuine smile set over her swooning heart. His tranquil tone of voice soothes and soft feathery touch covers her with a downy blanket. As the debonair young man finishes gently covering his exhausted angel, his observant eyes notice the small sheet of canvas carefully spread over the bedside end table her head had drifted to rest upon.

Yunoki's eyes widen as he takes in, with renewed wonder, the varied hues and subdued tones adorning the well-worked watercolor. Ayano must've been painstakingly slaved over the art of her talented pastels all the while in her selfless vigil caring for him at his convalescing side.

There, through the eyes of love inspired genius, was a nearly completed painting, depicting a terrace where a pale young man of obvious royal lineage was donning a billowy white tunic and a black golden trimmed cape, surrounded in a violet indigo aura. He was gazing up to an ebony night sky dotted exquisitely with a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors adorning different degrees of glowing stars. As he looked up to them, there seemed to be a mixture of hope and despair intermingled on his sleek features.

In the painting, the Prince's heavy lidded eyes were neither distant nor focused, the curve of his mouth set in neither smile nor frown, as one listless palm was extended upwards. It appeared longing to take flight in response to someone's faint call rising in the ether above, whilst the other hand was still firmly gripping the cold grey stone ledge, as if in fear to let go fully to join the vague shadow superimposed over the face of the moon, lest he be swallowed into the beckoning light of the innumerable sea of stars afloat between he and his Moon Goddess.

Upon further study of the depth of the skilled shading and subtle hues of that mysterious moon illustration that was intriguing his mind, Yunoki Azuma suddenly lets out a soft gasp, snapping back in total realization from the artistic reality that Ayano's breathtaking portrait had skillfully captured his entire attention within.

He shivers at how the artfully lifelike watercolor's depiction rang so true in this timid, oft forsaken young woman's empathic understanding of his life's own puzzling quest for freedom's fleeting ephemeral moment, so close and yet always so far away...

His eyes open now fully to Ayano's hidden strengths amidst her vulnerability for the first time. Just when his tormented soul needed her most, she was there for him. Yunoki smiles down on her slumbering form in gratitude—and then something more...

"You can rest soundly at last." The flutist strokes the girl's softly breathing cheek as he begins quietly to hum the hauntingly beautiful lullaby of "Sotto Voce" as if playing his flute to a new audience, a new inspiration.

"Sleep now...My Diana..." Yunoki softly whispers, alighting on the bed beside her as he takes her to her dreams. Through the portrait of her love for him, the sweet mystery of life was finally revealing itself, finding even a lost soul such as he. It was Yunoki's time now to quietly watch over the peaceful promise of his future alongside the priceless artwork that **was** Ayano, irreplaceable in her faithful prayer for her revered love, as the moonlight streams through the window illuminating them both in the constant soft beams piercing through the dark world.

* * *

The moonlight night parts over the reawakened city of Vienna as Tsuchiura Ryotaro inhales a full breath of the cool, crisp European air. He was eager to start this Thursday morn and get back to theConservatory to see if he'd been accepted to participate in theInternational Beethoven Piano Competition in June.

An anxious Tsuchiura had dashed out of the hotel and crossed the city at record pace as he rushed up into the impressive halls of the ornate building he'd performed in just yesterday.

But he had not made this angst filled journey on his own this time. Sakimoto Mizue, knowing how eager her boy was for this answer, had woken up early to come along for the ride.

_Is all this happening? Everything? Was it but yesterday or a distant dream of another lifetime?_

Mizue can't help the romantic notions of poetry from singing unebbed through her heart. Yesterday's breathtaking Danube sunset was only equaled by her longtime love's recognition of her unrequited feeling—and beginning to reciprocate the warmth in return.

She had told the green-haired youth (though she wasn't at all sure he'd heard her in his haste to enter the building) that she would secure their early morning breakfast from a nearby cafe, and be waiting for him, with his good news, when he came out. For surely, it would be good news. Mizue had given her lad an optimistic 'thumbs up' just before he disappeared into the doors and his nervous smile and double big 'thumbs up' returned the hope.

'_A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,  
And a word that shall echo for evermore!' _

So with Longfellow in mind to calm her nerves, upon a nearby bench Mizue had alighted with her breakfast booty. Placing the bag of fresh baked baguettes and muffins upon the cool, wooden seat, she couldn't even think to eat for the butterflies in her stomach. This was an important moment for Ryo. He had worked so hard to get to this—to have the chance to broaden his scope in the music she had come to discover was so ingrained within his soul.

And this was just as an important moment for Sakimoto Mizue, for she loved him throughout all his endeavors for as long as she could remember. Whether it was schoolwork, or sports, or his piano—his musical career was the one Ryo had finally chosen. But Mizue was smart enough to know by now that it was the music which had chosen Ryo, because he was so gifted, so talented, it could no longer be denied.

_Oh, Ryo, this is so exciting! You'll get it! I know you will!_

_'He ne'er is crowned with immortality  
Who fears to follow where airy voices lead.' _

Mizue recites John Keats inspirational passage on courage in her head as she imagines this first step towards the rest of her brave Ryo's life.

Already certain of the outcome, she had begun making arrangements of her own, to return to Vienna along with him for the months of June and July that he'd have to spend here in Vienna during the weeks of competition. Fortunately, she had gotten to talking to some of the friendly nurses at the hospital they'd been to yesterday when they were getting Tsuchiura's shoulder attended to.

_Was it **really** just yesterday?!_

While she had waited in the outer room, the sparse, busy nurses had informed her of their desperate shortage. Everyone, in their waning profession, seemed to prefer travel abroad than to stay here in Vienna.

_Who would ever want to leave this beautiful city?_ Mizue had asked, herself most of all. Feeling so moved by their diligent, selfless hard work, the girl in healthcare training for the past two years had come to the harried Austrian nurses' aid. She impressed them with her medical knowledge, deftness with the equipment and her genial amiability with patients. By the time Ryo's stitches were completed and he was released from the doctor's tests, industrious Mizue had been nearly guaranteed an all expenses paid internment at the Vienna hospital. She wanted to tell her guy right off, but the resigned way he had announced that it didn't matter if he was accepted or not upon coming out of the hospital, put a slight damper on her own good news.

She wouldn't have to return to intern as a nurse in Vienna if her Ryo wasn't coming here with her, would she? So Mizue let it go, and the sunset preoccupied the pair for the rest of the day anyway.

"Oh, Mizue! We promised not to keep anymore secrets from each other! You're a flake! You're going to tell him right now, as soon as he comes out, no matter what." Mizue murmurs in between sips of orange juice, stomping her feet to the ground as she paces around the tree-lined sidewalk in front of the massive recital building in anxious frustration as much as for warmth.

_As soon as he—_

**_GLOMP!_**

Mizue's shock at being unceremoniously grabbed from behind by a pair of big, gorilla-like manly hands was dispelled by the instant realization of who those massive hands belonged to, as they hug her surprised body close to him.

"I'm in, Mizue! The judges chose me!" Tsuchiura was unconsciously gleeful as he leans his forehead to hers in joyful relief.

"Oh, Ryo! I'm so glad for you!" Mizue genuinely responds, holding onto her drink for dear life, as the excited sportsman shakes her sturdy frame exuberantly as he spins her around.

"Mr. Mehta even said I was—how did he say it?! 'A moosical geniyas' for my years!" Tsuchiura proudly recounts the compliment from the eminent orchestra leader who was serving as guest judge this year. "He's a renowned conductor, you know!" Tsuchiura flips a canned juice in the air, one that he'd just swiped from Mizue's goody bag, still puffed up with pride at the honor this revered man had bestowed upon him.

"I'm not a dummy! I've heard of him." Mizue chuckles in between being shaken uncontrollably and spun about until she was dizzy.

"And he's right! You are a genius, Ryo. You're going to go far bringing wonderful music to the world! I just know it! You're going to succeed in Vienna and fulfill all your dreams." Mizue proudly joins in his enthusiasm. She was sincerely glad for him and showed it.

He finally pauses in his joy at the thought of reality's harsh light as he comes back to Earth, thinking of the future ahead...so far away...from Japan in Vienna..._so far away from you_...

"Yeah...in Vienna..." His brows knit in sudden concern. "Mizue, I'm going to have to come back for the whole summer. There's weeks to the competition, never mind the preparation. And then, after that...if I win—" He begins to say.

"When you win!" She interrupts with the proud assurance.

"—When I win," he laughs at her enthusiasm. "I'll have to come back..." His brow was wrinkled in consternation, not knowing how to quite say it right.

"—and I'll be coming with you." Mizue states boldly, turning his wrinkle into shocked curiosity. She felt so lightheaded, she could say anything now that he called her by her Christian name.

Heck! She would never leave his side again.

"But!" Tsuchiura's eyes were dancing with joy, but his mouth was twitching in uncertainty.

"No 'buts' about it, Ryo. I've already arranged for a nursing position at the hospital this summer. I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again. Don't you realize? You need me!" She giggles, squeezing his big, musical hands in her smaller, though capable, caring ones tightly, as she softly reaches to stroke the shoulder, while meaningfully looking up at him and he realizes that he's successfully ignored the pain all morning. He had been so excited to receive this highly anticipated news about the competition, he must've forgot his bum shoulder entirely.

"Yeah...yeah, I guess I do, Mizue." Tsuchiura Ryotaro smiles his contented triumph as Mizue gently massages the rest of his back, then smooths his forehead as all the worried wrinkles fade away under her attentive nursing touch.

Looking up to the sun drenched sky, there was bright future filled with music and light, unfolding before both pairs of dazzled eyes, as they stroll arm-in-arm in the lifting morning dew of Autumn, ready to take on the world and win.


	33. Chapter 33 - Love's Etude

**Chapter 33: "Love's Etude"**

Etou Kiriya wanted to get a jump on the practice already. He was not at all pleased with the last few sessions of the ensemble. Ryotaro-san was rushing through the piece, Kahoko was preoccupied daydreaming, Keiichi was asleep most of the time, and Aoi-san just wasn't taking this concert seriously enough for Etou's precise tastes.

_What's wrong with all you people? Azuma-san's condition has improved so you needn't use his illness as an excuse to slack off anymore! The concert's in two days, for Heaven's sake! Have some pride in your performance!_

The brash youth thinks, angered and frustrated as he stalks down the halls, carrying his violin case to the hotel's concert room they were utilizing as practice area.

Being the egotistical perfectionist he had conditioned himself to be in his sixteen years of life, Etou Kiriya was certain that any error in their ensemble was not at all to be his. It was everyone else who was at fault.

_Not me. It must be them. Especially Kahoko..._

Her fellow violinist had a secret determination to drill her hard today, to produce a better sound that he could never quite achieve with her.

"Oh, good." Etou's unpleasant frown curls into a cocky smirk. He was about to go in and lay down the law to the dream indulgent redhead, who he could see inside through the glass pane of the door. He was going to announce to her that today's rehearsal was going to be different, that he and she, as first and second violinist, needed to be more cohesive, more attuned to one another—to be able to create that '_perfect tone color'_, as Keiichi always called it, that he longed for.

But a second before his quick hand turns the doorknob, his trained ear strains to listen to Hino Kahoko's violin playing within. For in that instant, he was aware that she was in the perfect pitch, the perfect key—the perfect interpretation of Mendelssohn's 'Violin Concerto' that his musical soul had been hungry for her to play.

He was gleefully excited, but only momentarily, stopping still in his track, hand frozen on the doorknob just before he turns it. Seeing on her face through the pane, he realizes just why Kahoko was playing to such glorious heights of unequaled music.

She was not alone.

Commanding yet gentle, awe-inspiring yet lilting, there was indeed another expert hand executing the role of first violinist inside the room in his place. But playing a perfect tandem duet with Hino Kahoko was not Etou Kiriya's violin—it was Tsukimori Len's.

Etou's eyes widen, then slant as he hears Kahoko's strings respond to his eternal rival's in a way she never did with his. It was pure musical perfection that he was eavesdropping upon. The brutally honest soul in him clearly understood this, even through the limited scope of a closed door.

Peering in stealthily as not to be glimpsed, he could see the wistful smile emanating from Kahoko's face up at her duet partner, who gave a tender glance every now and then back at her. Len-san had  
substituted the lead violinist part that Etou was slated to perform at the concert on Saturday as he aids Kahoko in early practice as he had every morning before Etou and the others arrived.

**_My part. _**

Etou's fingers, still wrapped around the door handle, in a flash of anger at the scene, claw at the metal knob until he was quite white-knuckled. His arm begins to shake with the force of his hand's unrelenting squeeze. He had always had a quick temper, and his muscles tighten at the thought of being edged out of this important concert. Etou was as fervent about his music as he was arrogant with his words. But with good reason, or so he thought.

_My violin playing has improved since...it's just as good as his now! You just don't respond to me, like you do to him, Kahoko. You never play with me as harmoniously as Megumi does..._

This strange, errant thought creeps in his steaming mind as he improperly compares the violinist to the pianist. And yet, he recalls the unparalleled notes that pour from his strings whenever he was accompanied by Shouji Megumi.

And at the very moment of her name traveling through his thoughts, the anger fades.

Etou's mind calms as he hears within his mind the playful strains of 'Je te Veux' that he and Megumi now essentially 'owned.' The recollection of that ballad shows her smiling face embedded in his memory. And like she had confidently steadied his erratic path on the ice, just days ago, right now, in his racing, out of control heart, she was steadying him once again.

So instead of marching into the practice room and confronting the pair playing together in supreme, unified bliss with the envious red-hot anger of before, Etou Kiriya's temper cools as his stiffened fingers loosen from their death grip of the door handle. He turns and leaves without saying a single word, as unaware of the angst of a tormented young mind just outside the door their splendid combination within caused, Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko's strings continue to soar to the supreme Heaven found only together in a love's etude.

* * *

A staccato, rhythmic knock comes to the deluxe room #604 of the Grand Hotel Wien. It was early, not even 8:00AM yet, but Shouji Megumi had been lounging in her bed long enough. Since Mizue had tried to quietly leave without disturbing her before 7AM, a sleepy Shouji, grumbling to herself then, was now glad of it. She was already showered and dressed to greet whoever was at the door at this early hour.

She didn't think she would be needed today in the music room. Mizue had already assured her that she'd have Tsuchiura-senpai back in time for the afternoon rehearsal if she _'had to kill him_.'

After all, the concert to be held at the prestigious Vienna State Opera House was only two days away. So that meant only two more ensemble practices! All five members definitely had to be present today to refine their practicing and unify their ensemble to perfection.

But Shouji wasn't worried. All four elder, past Concours members were practically pros at this, and as for newcomer, Etou Kiriya...

His name and perfection, in her eyes, went hand in hand, not to mention his gorgeous good looks to boot. Shouji couldn't help herself from that quick drool as she crosses the room, leaving the smoothing of the spread on her hotel room bed, to see who was knocking.

And as she opens the door, she nearly swoons, for her Mr. Perfect himself was there, just as in her dreams, leaning in the doorway, looking cool and rather pensive.

_And so foxy, even in the morning..._

His veiny hands were against the door frame like a pose from the cover of a certain magazine that she never claimed to have sunk to have read.

"Kiriya..." Shy Shouji manages a high-pitched whisper at the drawn-eyed look the teenager was giving, not just her, but the world at large. He fails to even greet her with either word or smile, instead simply striding past into her hotel room, picking up her light jacket from the closet rack and returning to the entry in total silence.

"Come on." He finally breaks his stewing quiet with the two short-clipped words. Etou barely gave her a passing glance as he hands her her coat and storms out of the room and down the hallway like a speeding thundercloud.

Concerned, and perplexed by his mood, she races after him. Her smaller steps were no comparison to his long-legged stride, but he holds the waiting elevator door open for her, though lost in his own thoughts, never once meeting her eyes.

Timid Shouji remains quizzically subdued as she meekly obeys the wine-colored boy's taciturn trail down the elevator, through the lobby, and out the front door of the Grand Hotel, onto the sidewalk and into the cool morning.

The sun wasn't even present to warm her chilled heart. Even it seemed to have cowered and hidden behind a cloud or two when Etou Kiriya's darkened features appeared. It was as if he had to prove something as he suddenly grabs hold of her arm and they both cut across one street, then another. Their destination was obviously the Vienna Opera House itself.

Without giving explanation to either her or the one stupefied custodian, Etou cuts a path through the lobby and into the theater as the elderly man allows the arrogant, cocky boy and doe-eyed young girl into the front entrance. He recognized Etou's striking features and ever present violin case, tucked under one arm, from when this student lead violinist had received a guided tour some days ago of the Opera House to familiarize himself with its opulent stage, alongside his important uncle, Kira Akihiko.

Tight-lipped and unawed by anything the Opera House had to offer, Etou pulls Shouji onto the terrifying empty stage. He physically sits her down at the grand piano bench and swiftly whips out his own instrument, running a preliminary bow across his strings with flawless precision. It was the first bar of the 'Violin Concerto' he had just heard played.

"Play." He calls over to her and orders callously and succinctly, as if she was a wind-up toy he could just flick on and off at his whim.

But Shouji had a heart that beat wildly in her chest right about now, as Etou's maddeningly determined eyes fix upon hers.

"Please, Megumi...please play with me." In realization that she wasn't a mere machine at his beck and call, his harsh glare softens as he turns around to look at her, running a sheepishly apologetic hand through his thick unkempt bangs.

Shouji felt the coldness behind his uncommunicative eyes that had been gripping her soul melt away, and her warming fingers glide over the familiar black and white keys of the majestic concert grand piano on the stage. So with her gentle notes accompanying his deft ones, as he plays, Etou Kiriya immediately senses how well his violin blended with her instrument. His precise, clinically driven style metamorphed into a new, lovely creation, whose musical tone was as beautiful and resplendent as it was different from that of how he played the same piece with Hino Kahoko.

This is what music was supposed to be—an expression of emotions both as subjective and refractory as light, in all its perplexities. For each shade was a degree abler to obtain its own sense of glory in its own right. Etou was slowly coming to realize, as his powerful strings reverberate the majestic strains of Mendelssohn's arguably finest composition, that its true beauty wasn't in the actual precision of the notes, but rather the heart and soul of love that was released in the performer's own consciousness that pleased the ears of its listeners.

_So this is the ideal tone color that Keiichi is always going on about...The one all my own...That Len-san had told me I had to find for myself... the true ideal music my heart has to produce itself..._

Letting his violin go fully into realms his precise calculated music never went before, Etou Kiriya feels a contented smile come to his no longer pursed lips, as his duet with Shouji comes to a powerful crescendo and his eyes cease to focus on his instrument and instead rest upon the source of the heart of its fluttered open petals of love.

In his need to prove himself something musically today, Etou had proven to himself something soulfully, instead, as Shouji's brilliant glowing eyes meld with his in perfect understanding.

**_CLAP CLAP CLAP_**

Their heartfelt duet had not gone unnoticed, though. Etou's eyes almost unwillingly lift from their lock with his accompanist to find Kira Akihiko applauding them from a front row seat. Both Etou and Shouji were so absorbed in the music and each other that neither had seen the Director of Seiso enter from the front office where he'd been attending to paperwork, when he heard their beautiful playing of one of his favorite pieces.

"You've finally discovered the secret of what music is truly about, haven't you, Kiriya?" His uncle asks the question he'd been longing for his promising, yet conceited nephew to answer for himself.

Because Kira still remembered how playing music alongside the other half of your soul gave it wings to fly.

Etou glances back at Shouji meaningfully, with a true satisfied smile coming to his lips.

"Yes, Akihiko-san, I believe I have." He responds with an unusually respectful nod back at his proud guardian. The two stubborn men stare wordlessly at one another for what seemed an eternity.

"They would've been proud of you, Kiriya." Kira finally breaks the silence, saying what he's been meaning to say for some time.

"Now, go out and get some breakfast and some sun, you two. The morning is still young and we have ensemble practice later for you to be in peak physical condition."

The look shared between them told Etou of the success he'd achieved. Not only in music, but in a heart that troubled the older man for its future welfare until now.

Kira smiles at his watches his ward exuberantly grasp Shouji Megumi's hand as they dash down the steps from the stage and out of the building.

* * *

"Did you hear what he said, Megumi?" Etou cries out, excitedly as he tugs her surprised arm into the warm, sunlit street. Shouji nods back with a bright smile.

"Thanks, Megumi. The difference is you ..." He wraps his left arm over her surprised shoulders and leads her into the brightly awakening morning.

As Etou thinks of his parents' violin playing that Kira was referring to, a blushing Shouji could see there was a soft, sentimental side to this once, cool, dispassionate boy that she liked very much. A rainbow even appears above them, as if sent from someone Above in a message.

In her sun-glinted eyes, Shouji knew that he was truly her perfect, handsome prince, even more beautiful somewhere deep down if he let it come out. She begins to laugh as the two share a smile, racing, hand in hand, into Vienna's wondrous romantic scenes, with a decision already forming in Etou Kiriya's newly awakened mind. Shouji's ever patient, sweet and obliging demeanor of love had finally showed him what the true spirit of music and of life's song really could be.


	34. Chapter 34 - Castles and Dreams

**Chapter 34: "Castles and Dreams"**

After leaving Kira once they had played at the Opera House, Etou Kiriya had taken his uncle's advice to heart. He felt the need to let his new wings fly, and he and Shouji soon found themselves sun swept aboard a scenic bus tour that promised to end in a one-day ride on the Danube Valley Cruise ship.

Shouji had been eager to see Vienna's beauteous shining lakes and  
romantic castles after viewing the poster advertisement at the cafe Etou had taken her to for breakfast. The sixteen-year-old teenager was strangely only too happy to please the shy girl's daydreaming wishes.

The crisp weather was especially beautiful for a river cruise as the midday sun brilliantly rises high in the sky. The pamphlet in her hand which she had secured on the tour bus ride here, indeed told the truth that the Wacchau was the best historic destination in the world. From its lovely view of plentiful castles, charming old villages and pretty wine vineyards, the boat that floated past the stretch of the Danube called the Wacchau, certainly lived up to its promise—and then some.

Historical, beautiful, and _so_ _romantic._

Shouji's breath is stolen away from her at nearly every bend in the river. Her dreamy eyes were dazzled by the untouched by time, pristine scenery's beauty.

And right now, Etou Kiriya was dazzled by hers. For the first time in his young life, he felt that sweet glow reach across to him for the girl leaning at the cruise ship's railing beside him.

Her every 'ooh' and 'ahh!' and 'Wow! Look at that! So beautiful!'  
innocent raptures, caused Etou's once cool, impervious heart to be disturbed—for Shouji Megumi sparkled more than any historic landmark or stunning vista in his emotionally awakening eyes.

"That must be the Castle Durnstein. It says here that's where  
England's King Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned until his ransom was met. Isn't that exciting?" Etou couldn't help but smile at Shouji's sweet enthusiasm as she reads the boring set of pamphlets she'd brought along, pointing over the river at the sights to him.

"Yes, very exciting." He comments, entranced eyes laughing down at her. But Shouji didn't catch his true meaning—which was no longer only full of condescension—but of so much more.

"And that's the Benedictine Abbey in Melk near the castle!" Pointing at a large stone building looming in the distance, she continues as his personal tour guide, as the Danube winds around the bends, with the sunshine dancing on its gorgeous, yet ancient waters, and she gives it a longing look.

"You want to go see that castle close up? We can stop there for lunch if you'd like." Etou asks gallantly, though already knowing the wistful girl's answer before she opens her mouth.

"Really, Kiriya?!" Her big, sparkling blue eyes turn to his with an equally sparkling, bedazzled smile from ear to dreamy ear.

"Really." He nods at her, already resigned today to be the one to fulfill her selfless wishes for once. He knew how much she jumped at his every beck and call. Perhaps today he could be her manservant.

In her excited gratitude, the shy girl throws her arms around the shocked boy, who was quite taken aback by her unusual boldness. Shouji Megumi is immediately ashamed of herself, blushing violently at her own brashness.

Avoiding his eyes with a horrified, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" hastily added, she bites her knuckle, as she was wont to do, when in shame or in doubt, in nervousness.

"Hey," Etou takes that trembling hand away from her wobbling as if about to cry mouth, and instead puts it to his own lips, brushing it with them as he kisses the back of her hand softly with a serious look on his face up at her, after dropping to his knees at her feet.

"You don't ever have to say you're sorry to me. Okay, Megumi?" His grave, intense look is replaced by a grin. Seeing she was still trembling deliriously, he takes off his jacket and wraps it around her shaky shoulders. Shouji was so enthralled by it all, she nearly swoons again.

"And don't go fainting on me, either." He chuckles, steadying the girl who had fallen against his chest, basking in his warmth. Etou tries to ignore the twittering of the audience that the young romantic pair had garnered on the ship's deck.

"Yes, my Prince..." Etou blushes at Shouji's thankfully almost inaudible words, as the two look over the beautiful blue Danube's rippling waves dancing under the intense sunlight.

* * *

Where dreams and princesses had lived in the castles they'd glimpsed on the horizon, hand in hand with legends like 'Violin Romance' and the beautiful blue Danube...

Etou Kiriya, for the first time, felt those dreams, too, glow within him. Today, his heart was awakened by this sparkling girl with the background scenery of a land of pure beauty that suited her so well. After the two disembark the ship, he gives her full reign to explore the sights, as well as the Abbey, where many passengers were lunching.

Watching her tranquil satisfaction, Etou suddenly has an irresistible impulse to give his Megumi one last breathtaking view for her memories of Austria. Inexplicably, to the teen's mind, if not his heart, something of this legendary land had changed his whole outlook on life and pulled him into Shouji Megumi's innocent, romantic world.

On the stroll back to the ship, he leads her on a languid walk up a hill overlooking the Castle Durnstein, as the sun starts to slowly descend to the hillside. Shouji Megumi was completely in utter raptures, cooing at the breathtaking scenery with deep contented sighs.

"Doesn't that castle just seem to _glow_ pure white to you, too, Kiriya? Just like in every storybook legend..." Shouji trails off her whisper as the blithe caroling of birds flying above them complete the atmosphere of innocence that made so many questions in Etou Kiriya's heart as clear as the dazzling horizon the two were gazing upon, side by side.

"Yes, Megumi, it does." For indeed, the Castle Durnstein was set ablaze by the glinting rays of the sunset in echo of his cool heart melted by the warmth only she could've showed him through her music accompanying his.

A warmth and something else about himself, too. She had awakened it in him, as he, unusually attuned to nature for some reason tonight, heard those songbirds sing as they gather in the orange-hued sky above, soaring high and low, as they speak to one another of love in full blossom, now ready to burst into true fruition.

Etou's thoughts burn as intensely certain as the brilliant rays of the falling sunset. They slowly ebb over the pair standing on the hill, as Etou and Shouji take in the view. His hands, which before only lived to play his fierce music on his flawless violin, found themselves wrapping around his mystical girl's soft shoulders, as ethereal notes dance through the sky—straight into his heart, into his soul.

"Megumi..." He breathes, in a low, husky voice, strangely not quite certain what was to come out next.

"Yes?" She whispers, so entranced by his burgundy wine hair caught fire in the sunset, his warm hands on her shoulders, and his eyes upon her, so deep and beautiful, for her to ever be coherent again.

**_Toot! Toot!_**

"All aboard!"

The foghorn in the distance that was the tour ship's final calling for passengers to board for its return trip back home to port, interrupts the romantic moment.

Closing his mouth mid-sentence, Etou and Shouji's intimate look of love modifies into guilty, wide-eyes of two young teenagers caught out late, so wrapped up in the beauty of their magnificent adventure.

"Will they leave us behind?" Losing all other thoughts, she whispers in hushed worry, frozen in place on the hill and chewing her knuckle again for a split second.

But one glimpse into his confident, fearless of anything, flaring eyes that saw a challenge, calms her anxiety into giggles.

"Not if we can outrun them! Come on, Megumi!" Caught up in the moment of brazen youth, his hot, excited hand grasps hold of hers from her mouth tightly.

As they barrel down the steep hills, hand in hand, Etou's long legs agilely lead. Shouji didn't have any other thought but to revel in the  
security of his warm touch, his cute face chuckling with a merriment and glow she'd seldom seen in the serious boy before, if ever. The couple, giggling all the while, race hand in exhilarated hand, towards the dock, where the nearly departing ship was about to set sail back to Vienna.

The crewman impatiently waiting for them to board shakes his head as they breathlessly run on deck. But the shared happy looks passing between Etou and Shouji's laughter and smiles, make the sour crewman smile himself.

"_Ah, young romance amidst castles and dreams_..."

It was the thought on everyone's heart who saw the two pass by.

* * *

That afternoon's practice session went off without a hitch, despite the fact that their lead violinist didn't show up for rehearsal. The Director himself came in at the appointed time Etou Kiriya should have been there. Kira informed the surprised group that his nephew would be  
detained in a personal inspection of the Opera House's harmonics and would be excused if he was late in joining the ensemble today.

Kira's statement made little sense to the other four members of the ensemble. They wondered what even Etou Kiriya could possibly be  
needing to tweak in the harmonics of Vienna's—no, the world's—finest establishment for musical eminence.

But then again, Etou was Etou. Not a one of them had been untouched by his 'advice' when it came to the intense youth's striving for musical perfection.

So they all let it go, especially after Director Kira approached a surprised Tsukimori Len upon arriving.

"As a personal favor to me," the older man begins with a trace of discomfort in his deep voice, "Will you kindly fill in for him as first violinist today, Tsukimori-kun? The others still require their practice, and I know I can rely on you to lead the way in Kiriya's place, until he returns."

"Why...yes. Of course, Director. I'd be pleased to be of any assistance." Tsukimori, politely ever the gentleman, answers obligingly.

Hino Kahoko reaches over and playfully taps his arm with her own delighted, giddy bow. She and Tsukimori had been practicing, and knew the piece well together.

"I'm sure you'll all do well enough—that is, if Hino-kun can keep her mind on the MenCon, in between batting her eyes at today's leader." Having his fill of youthful romance for the day, Kira smirks as Hino withdraws her bow, and blushes violently under his scrutiny.

Tsukimori clears his throat when Kaji chortles at the caught-in-the-act pair. Shimizu, as usual, was in his own little world, oblivious, with Fuyuumi pretending to be deep in thought, studying the score at the music stand intently.

"Tsuzuki-kun, Ousaki-kun, do keep them in order, please. Kiriya should be joining the group again shortly...I hope..." And with one final raised brow warning look at the reunited violinist lovers, that said '_Don't make me regret this_' without uttering a word, Kira leaves the room.

Giving his blue haired roommate an unnecessary cautioning eye, Ousaki and Tsuzuki exchange a glance in wonder of what could detain their hard driven star violinist, just two days before the performance.

Both knew that Tsukimori Len would serve as a more than suitable backup, but...

"The Director knows what's best. You and I will take good care of them, won't we, Tsuzuki-san?" Ousaki says to her, pulling her aside for some private words.

He never once suspected how the subject of the statement and the warm hand on her shoulder were tugging in opposition on her flustered and confused heart, playing havoc with Tsuzuki Mari's quiet serenity.

Just as the 'past' ensemble was reassembled, so too, are her feelings for the calm, generous and kind OB, with winning ways and pleasant smiles, and who was once the most important figure in her life.

Tsuzuki can't help these feelings from creeping back up in her mind, as they work side by side with the former Seiso students. She recalls the time when she and Ousaki Shinobu were just like them—classmates, Concours members, rivals, perhaps friends, but...nothing more. No matter how hard young Tsuzuki Mari had tried to impress him, he never considered her more than just a friend.

_Just a friend..._

Tsuzuki couldn't help but wish that Director Kira had not left she and Ousaki in charge together today. But her attention was soon distracted from wistful glances over Ousaki's caring shoulder, when Tsuchiura Ryotaro comes bounding in with his good news.

"Congratulations, Tsuchiura-kun. I knew you could do it." Mari gives her prized student a celebratory hug. Mizue didn't mind one bit now, after Ryotaro had explained over lunch how Tsuzuki-san had been  
patiently teaching the green-haired musical protege how to play both violin and viola, not to mention a spattering of many other various instruments beyond the piano he was becoming master of. Mizue felt her own head would've popped from being overwhelmed by all that musical training herself.

No wonder Ryo was always too busy to pick her up at night after her nursing classes were over. No wonder he was so tired on the sparse dates he did keep. His mind always seemed to be a million miles away—or more like 6,000 miles, for it was here in Vienna that he was working so hard to be able to compete in and win the International Beethoven Piano Competition, that would certainly launch his career in the music world.

And now that the brilliant musician in Ryo was succeeding beyond her wildest dreams, Mizue was so proud she could just cry. After Ryo was done being embraced by the older woman, Mizue gives Tsuzuki-san a hug as well for her kindness to her guy. And the normally detached, cold instructor returns Mizue's pleased smile with growing ease.

"I couldn't have done it without you, Tsuzuki-san." Tsuchiura gives his kindly mentor a grateful nod. Her feminine eyes motion to the big, ignorant lug to pay some attention to the girl he came in with. "...Or you, either, Mizue!" He too quickly adds, like the clumsy ox he was, for Mizue to ever believe in its sincerity.

But the thought was what counted when it came to Tsuchiura Ryotaro.

_...I suppose..._

Mizue felt lucky enough to take it when she got it.

"Enough of that, Mr. Big Shot Conductor! You've got another important performance, day after tomorrow first! So get to work!" She brashly gives Tsuchiura's tight tush a slap, exchanging with Hino a thumbs up and brilliant smile.

"Hey!" Tsuchiura turns red as a beet with embarrassment, in front of the snickering others, about to chide Mizue when Mari's raised eyebrow look halts his words in their tracks.

"This young lady's work ethic is going to be a valuable influence on your career, Tsuchiura-kun. Don't underestimate her, and never question when she says 'go.' That is my final tutoring advice to you."

"I guess I'm in for it now..." Tsuchiura playfully throws his hands up in jest, giving Mizue a wink as he crunches up the entry from of the IBPC competition he just mastered. Tossing it aside dismissively, he plunks his bottom on the piano bench like her forefinger was directing him to do. Tsuchiura grunts and glares at Kaji, Ousaki, and even Tsukimori's bemused faces at his amusing hen-pecked situation.

"Good job, Tsuchiura-kun, I never doubted you." Hino Kahoko smiles at her talented friend's success. She was happier today than she had been in a long, long time. Not just in the performing, but_ living _the music again at her true love's side as she's always dreamed.

A few minutes later, Kanazawa-sensei arrives to help Hihara escort Yunoki from upstairs to a seat as audience in their Grand Hotel Wien's kindly supplied music room. He wanted to be part of the practice and looked more healthy and in good spirits than last they'd seen their elegant yet emaciated senpai, stylish in a gold buttoned jacket and floral tie, his long indigo hair done up in a casual ponytail by his loving fiancée personally as he flashes everyone a smile.

Now with a gregarious Kanayan and happy Hihara to aid OB Ousaki and Instructor Tsuzuki, Tsukimori, Hino, Tsuchiura, Shimizu and Kaji, as one spirit, just like the old days at Seiso, as if Tsukimori had never left, deliver such a moving rendition of the piece, that  
Mendelssohn himself would've been impressed.

As music rings out flawlessly, to perfection, Yunoki and all his 'girl' guard, who had congregated to the room around him, one by one, listen with joy at the unparalleled sound, fully expressive of the splendid blend of emotions each player had to bring to the ensemble.

Pausing at the door before leaving the hotel for a meeting across the city, Kira's own musical ear is pleased, though after catching Mari's eyes upon Ousaki through the door window, his heart is sent wandering again...


	35. Chapter 35 - Catch Me When I Fall

**Chapter 35: Catch Me When I Fall"**

Long after the sun had sunk below the horizon, Etou Kiriya and Shouji Megumi had arrived back at the Hotel Wien much later than any of them expected of thedriven-to-musical-perfection teen. But the flushed with excitement looks still etched on both Etou and Shouji's cheeks and faces were proof than neither of them regretted a single moment of their exhilarating afternoon. With an uncharacteristic grateful smile adorning his brightly colored lips and something even deeper in his eyes, Etou cordially thanks Tsukimori for filling in for him today.

Len turns, his violin still erect beneath his strong chin to gaze on the boy's ruddy features.

"Thanks a lot, Len-san. I'll return the favor someday." He had a crooked grin on his face that only Shouji understood, as Etou gives her a gorgeous, rakish glance of hidden conspiracy that the two shared before relieving Tsukimori of his role as first violinist. Etou takes his place with a nod as the other ensemble members oblige their previously missing star player with a last full airing of the 'Violin Concerto' piece together, of which he performs extremely well.

This practice proved to be his most inspired and lucid ensemble playing to date, each player's entire heart in it, setting everyone's mind well at ease in the promise of an impeccable showing at the Opera House the day after next. By the end of the late practice, the pleased ensemble is dismissed by equally contented Tsuzuki Mari and Ousaki Shinobu. Kanayan had long disappeared, for he had an adoring audience of his own awaiting his acting and singing skills on that very stage where his loving wife was keeping the frazzled opera director at bay during their lead tenor's absence.

Yunoki's health was assured by his adoring attendant, Ayano, whose quiet command was finally, though hesitantly, passed off to eager Hihara and worried for Ayano's own fragile body's lack of sleep, Miyabi, under her big brother's own advisement for his own selfless Florence Nightingale.

As for the rest of the gang, they disperse to enjoy what little rest and relaxation they could squeeze in, in between practice in the beautiful city.

Determined not to miss out on one last night out on the town, Kaji Aoi seizes this peaceful lull for his opportunity.

"Mori-san?" Building his courage the entire elevator ride up, Kaji smiles, his gaze focused on his viola as he collects his thoughts.

Suddenly, he puts a hand on her turned shoulder before she enters her room across the hall. He, however, quickly removes the guilty digits that were meant only for a simple courtesy tap. Kaji was already blushing by the time Mori has to turn around to gaze upon him.

"Yes, Aoi-san?" She didn't quite know what to expect from the mixture of emotions crossing the 19-year-old boy's face.

"Would it be all right, I mean, would you like to...I mean, that is..." Kaji's usually exuberant eloquence fails him every time that pair of feminine eyes was fixed upon him. "Would you care to have dinner with me?" He says in a practiced rush, all in one breath.

Mori is touched at how cute this congenial politician's son could be when he ashamedly bows his head before her, just to hide his reddened face, she was sure.

"Yes. I wouldn't mind if I do, kind sir." The sure-footed girl with a good head on her shoulders smiles at the sweet invitation. Kaji's big aqua eyes, a dazzling sight to behold, were like a child about to blow out a brightly burning birthday candle for a wish, knowing full well it already came true when she said '_yes_'...

* * *

It was a beautiful night for romance in Vienna. Tsukimori Len had already booked the best table at the Wien Garten, the finest five-star restaurant/ballroom in all of Vienna's authentic cultural quarter. He had been on the waiting list of privileged guests since last Monday. Wien Garten's reported stellar service and excellent cuisine was in constant demand, not to mention its bowery of gorgeous flowers that decorated nearly every section of the spacious, refined establishment all year round.

Its soft lighting and romantic resplendence was just what Tsukimori Len had in mind. He hadn't told Kahoko where he'd intended on taking her for dinner, instead just assuring her that she was well-dressed enough in a lovely cerulean blue evening dress that the girls had especially acquired (i.e. Mori Manami feigning college assignment work and sneaking her friend's most beloved frock from the closet clandestinely) for the redhead back home before they left.

But once the couple steps through the idyllic, rose encrusted trellis that served as the Wien Garten's front entrance, Kahoko is absolutely certain she is anything BUT equal to the affair. There was a sparkling indoor fountain that bubbled in the front lobby, gold crusted trimmings on every wall wherever an exquisite painting was not hanging. And the flowers—Kahoko had never seen such a display of flora in all her life within any building, much less a restaurant in the throes of wintertime!

"How breathtaking...!" She breathes in wonder at the classical beauty of poetry set into floral motion before her bedazzled eyes.

Tsukimori Len, properly attired in a handsome white dinner jacket and black bow tie, is certain that no one was lovelier than the girl on his arm as he leads her into the restaurant overlooking the ballroom. After they were seated by the German headwaiter, he fluently orders their meal in the native tongue. Hino is too awestruck by the garden's beautiful appearance to even notice how nervous her beau was, or how many times he had stuck his hand in his pocket to feel if a certain item was still safely nestled within, or how many times he'd gazed upon her innocent face glowing with wonder, as she praised the  
restaurant, the food, the decor, with a lump in his throat that never seemed to go down.

"Kahoko...?" He asks, after the delicious dinner of grilled quail and Viennese potatoes was finished. But she was still too enthralled to pick up on his tension yet, for it was normal for Tsukimori Len to only utter a few sparse words in the course of an hour of mealtime.

"Yes, Len?" Kahoko loved the way his name rolled off her tongue. He did, as well, though the joy of hearing it close up disturbed his train of thought, and all pre-practiced words flew out the door.

He glances around in desperation, grasping for something to say that wouldn't make him sound as stupid as he inadequately felt. "Would you care to dance?" He suddenly asks, upon hearing the in-house orchestral music begin to play, and seeing other couples rising to the ballroom floor.

"Oh, Len! It's been so long since we've danced together! I'd love to..." Kahoko says blissfully, oblivious of her love's true intentions, as the dashing young man stands from his seat, and escorts her to the dance floor. Feeling like she had stepped into Heaven amidst the dreamy world of pink petals swirling around them, she takes Len's arm and the two begin a slow, romantic waltz.

He expertly spins her around the floor in perfect rhythm with one another, as looking up into his eyes, she could feel his need—his desire—to ask her something, his lips just parting to speak...

"Tsukimori-kun? Hino-san? What a small, small world it is! Even in Vienna!" Kaji Aoi's bubbly voice shatters the romantic atmosphere to pieces.

Tsukimori and Hino break their entranced gaze to look up and see the golden-haired boy with Mori Manami, also in full dress, waltzing and winking at each other, across Wien Garten's exclusive ballroom floor.

"We didn't know you were going to be here! Aoi-kun just called the place and they let us in! Something about a favor owed, really..." Mori says apologetically to Hino through gritted teeth and a tight-lipped smile as Kaji slows down their waltz that he was surprisingly well-versed with, to speak with the other couple just bumped into.

"How did you manage to reserve a table on such short notice?" Tsukimori almost was demanding of the iniquity of it all.

"I...uh...my Dad knows a guy who knows a guy here." Kaji giggles at the infinite power of being a renowned politician's heir.

"Oh." Tsukimori says with an unbecoming frown.

"That's great! We can...have dessert together after the dance. How's that sound to you?" Hino Kahoko, ever so kind, ever so dense, doesn't pick up Tsukimori's reticence at all, as she tugs him back to their dance.

"Sounds like fun! See you at your table in a few minutes!" Every bit just as dense, Kaji calls back boldly across the dance floor, unaware of any civilities he was stepping on, when someone else's steps on his.

"Owww!" He whines, when Mori trods a well-turned heel on his tuxedoed foot, none too lightly.

"Mori-san?" He asks pleadingly, fighting the urge to rub his poor foot in the middle of the dance floor.

"You've got a lot of learning to do if you're ever to make a politician, Kaji Aoi-kun." Mori sighs at the 'boy', knowing he and she had blown Hino's romantic night-not to mention a big chunk of her own.

_But perhaps the night was still young..._

She forgives his sad, puppy dogs eyes on her instantly, pulling him closer to her in an even more intimate slow dance, as the music changes into more serious romantic tones.

The friendly dessert was just that. Mori sensed that Tsukimori Len's romantic moment factor had passed, but as she just told herself a minute ago—the night was still young. So as a proud 'girl power' trooper, she cajoles Kaji into excusing themselves from the after dessert coffee. Mori gave the false pretense that the two had other pressing plans for the night. So after a hurried '_adieu_,' she and heskedaddle from the pink flower bowery. Kaji was already on his cell phone for a limo to come pick them up, before Mori could say:

"Thank you for a wonderful evening, Aoi-san. The ballroom was beautiful, dinner was marvelous and—" Mori sheepishly glances up at him in the darkened back seat of the limousine.

"I am sorry I stepped on your foot. Does it still hurt?" Mori recalls how her handsome  
escort had limped out of the restaurant minutes ago.

"Well..." A wincing expression on his face, he was about to reply honestly, but chivalry kicks in soon enough.

"No! No! Not at all! My foot is...fine." He whispers with a giggle, reassuring her, as Mori sighs with guilty relief. Her comforting hand was still on his arm as the pulsating lights of the city just stream through the window enough for him to catch a glimpse of how lovely her face was, framed by the moonlight in the side of the backseat.

"Mori-san? Are you very tired?" He asks out of nowhere, hopefully.

"No...actually, not at all." She answers. She too, had been a victim of the passing moonlight upon his sweet golden features.

"Oh, good!...I mean—" Kaji was still new to this whole 'romance' thing, though he believed he was an expert. "I'd like to take you someplace...that is...if you wouldn't mind this time of night...and you don't mind...and you're not too tired..." He quickly repeats himself.

Mori chuckles at his valiant attempts to stay calm. "I am not too tired, Aoi-san. I swear it!" She places a dramatic hand on her heart and with closed eyes, crosses it.

"Oh! I'm so relieved!...Driver!" Kaji breathes a big pent up sigh as he leans forward to give the driver of the limo instructions.

"Well then, we're off! If we get chilly, I brought us some jackets to keep us warm!" Kaji Aoi launches into a stream of nonsensical jokes and conversation amounting to nothing in particular much for an hour or so as the sleek limousine cuts through the night.

Mori engages in his happy prattle, but any suspicious prompting as to their elusive destination seemed to not be a topic of discussion in his chatty book. Her eyes grow heavy as the darkened landscape seems to speed past her deep tinted window in a glazed hallucination. She finds herself so entranced by his sweet voice and pleasant tone, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the traveling limo, that she loses track of time.

A few times, Mori was almost tempted to take out the cell phone in her purse, but she had purposely switched it off when Aoi-kun had asked her out to dinner, and she had no intention of turning it back on—yet. She herself was annoyed by people who constantly disturbed the peace when they should be paying attention to whom they were with physically, instead of filling the air with rude cellphone chatter.

Now, this wasn't a public place anymore—far from it—as she smirks to herself about the virile young man's proximity to her unchaperoned self, but it was the principle of the thing, and this was a date.

_A date on which I have absolutely no idea where I'm going..._Mori contemplates as the dark limo flies towards a secret location, cloaked in ebony mystery.

Just then, a brilliant idea must've popped into her lone companion's head. Kaji giggles and gurgles as he switches seating arrangement sides and ducks under the seat to produce with gusto, a certain familiar case. Mori, with curious eyes, wonders just how far planned in advance this trip was.

"Ta da! How about a _Little Night Music_, My Lady?" He boyishly grins flirtatiously, as he whips out his trusty viola from its case. Like a pro, before his singular audience's laughing eyes, he begins with a sloppy phrase or two of Mozart's piece.

"Play away, kind Sir! I'm not going anywhere!" She answers in jest and so he does. At first energetically, but then he breaks into softer tones, followed by a sweet serenade that lullabys Mori's eyelids to sleep. Her head comes to rest against an oddly placed plush pillow, as her half-asleep questioning about the nonstandard issue item in the back seat fades into a lulled slumber by the gentle strains of Aoi-kun's tender viola playing...the music sweeping her away...

* * *

Mori awakens sometime later, when she overhears Kaji's high-pitched whispered voice in a giggle conversing with the limo driver through the glass he was seated under. Somehow sensing her groggy eyesupon him, he quickly shuts up and turns back towards her with a guilty grin, sliding the window closed.

"Did I fall asleep, Aoi-san?" Mori states the obvious drowsily, as she heaves her tired body up from the comfortable limo's back seat that she had curled up on for a cat-like doze.

Somehow a light blanket joined the plush pillow and had found its way over to cover her. She stifles a yawn as she meets her attendant's bright gaze. It was still pitch black dark, and Mori's gaze out the window assured her that she mustn't have slept very long.

"Aren't we there yet?" She smiles with the question, feeling quite warm and fuzzy whenever she woke from a cat nap, even in an unfamiliar moving vehicle, as she hugs herself with the downy blanket, her arms embracing the velvet pillow.

"We're almost there." Kaji answers, nervously giggling at this night's covert action. "It's a surprise you'll like."

Mori was puzzled by this, but Kaji Aoi had that kind of contagious smile and laughter that couldn't be denied. There was an excited gleam to his eye, too, that had her wondering even as the limo begins to slow, and finally stops.

"We're here!" Kaji announces, bubbling over with enthusiasm after a confab with his limo driver through the glass.

She was about to peer out the tinted windows for a better look of where '_here_' exactly was, when Aoi's voice raises at her with a warning.

"No peeking! I mean – please close your eyes, Mori-san..." Mori felt like a kindergartener again as, just like a little kid at recess in the schoolyard, as Kaji sidles over to her side of the limo bench and places a warm hand over her eyes.

"As if I could see in this pitch black anyway!" Mori giggles at his effervescent childish behavior. She hears him open the door and let out a low begins to tug her disoriented body from the car.

"Careful...step down now, Mori-san...Carefully..." She was entirely at his mercy, but she was adventurous enough to like the feeling of putting herself completely in his long-fingered hands, as the teen patiently leads her cautiously into the cool breeze. His palm was still cupped over her eyes as they walked.

"Aoi-san? Can't I look yet?" Mori begins to get a vague idea of where they were from the salty scent coming to her nostrils. The softly crashing sounds of waves ebbing out, assured her excited senses of something near and dear.

"Not yet!" Kaji really was acting like a child. He stoops down awkwardly to pick up something from the ground, while still keeping his long-armed 'hide and seek' hand over her eyes.

"Now, Aoi-san?" She starts to tease him back, feeling his struggle and enjoying flustering him.

"Not yet!" He manages to scoop up whatever his fingers were in search of and she heard him blow on something lightly before placing it in her hands gently.

"If you can guess what this is, all will be revealed!" He says to her the romantic taunt in his silly little game.

"It's a seashell!" Mori guesses correctly as she lightly feels the half-round object he placed in her hand.

"Correct!" He shouts happily, followed by his ever-present giggling. "Are you ready for your prize?" His voice goes somewhat husky.

"Yes, I am!" Mori chuckles back, caught up in his youthful excitement. Kaji finishes positioning her and slowly lifts his hand from her eyes. Whilst he does, the familiar scent of the air was as intoxicating as his incessant giggles. She couldn't help herself but join in with laughter of her own at this silly, giddy farce, as the sound of his heavy breathing mixes with softly cresting waves in her ears.

Mori feels her spirits climb in sweet anticipation of the moment of what Aoi-kun had planned for her in his happy enthusiastic innocence.

"Voila!" He whispers as Mori's acclimating eyes take in the breathtaking scene. She blinks, as her suspicions of what her other five senses were telling her were justified.

"The sea! How did you—?" Mori wonders, puzzled at how landlocked Austria could provide such a glorious sight.

"Welcome to Trieste, Mori-san. The land where the Adriatic meets the Mediterranean Sea." Kaji proudly plays tour guide as he revels when Mori's eyes seem to pop out of their sockets.

"Do you mean to say that we're in...Italy?" Mori never felt so romantic a notion than this secret late-night trip to the Mediterranean in all her life.

"Friuli Venizia Giulia, Italy, to be exact." With a fluent accent, Kaji shows off his worldly knowledge (the limo's GPS helped a bit, too!).

"Oh, Aoi-san, this must be a dream!" Closing her eyes, Mori Manami lets the unseasonably warm 60 degree weather, even at early morning, pervade her body. "Both the Adriatic and the Mediterranean?! Are you serious? How did you know I love to visit the sea! How did you know it's been my dream since I was a little girl to travel to all seven seas someday! But they were so far away..." Mori dashes up a sand dune to get a better view of the sparkling Adriatic, breathing in deeply the salty air as the stars seem to illuminate its every wave.

"It was? I mean...I mean...I knew that! Of course! Of course, because..." With an attack of that famous nervous giggle of his, Kaji strains his brain for a suave remark, but no lights were turning on. The look on his face was so endearing that Mori turns midstep to hear his explanation. "...because..."

Mori was so busy chuckling at Kaji's grasping for words that she fails to see the rock formation jutting out of the sands. "Ao-eeEE! Ohhh, OHHH!"

She plunges headfirst down. Kaji rushes forward to catch her fall, creating quite a romantic heroic scene of a watery maiden and her rescuer on the Adriatic/Mediterranean midnight shore.

Mori finds herself wrapped totally in his long arms, feeling the wind thoroughly knocked out of her, but nothing more, for the boy had saved her and was hugging her gently to him, as if she were a precious pearl.

"Because you're just like that beautiful mermaid who falls into my arms in every one of my dreams..." He finishes his sentence fully this time, for once saying the right words, as he blushes sweetly, locked in her eyes. She was safe in his arms, with no fear of falling whenever he was near. They were lost in each other's gaze.

"My beautiful mermaid, come to me from the depths of the emerald sea..." Dreamily, he whispers poetry as their tender lips meet each other for the first time in a sweet kiss full of playful longing, as the ocean waves crest and fall beneath the mesmerizing moonlight...


	36. Chapter 36 - OldLovesOldWounds2ndChances

**Chapter 36: "Old Loves, Old Wounds, Second Chances"**

Friday morning's final full day of practice rolls in, as Ousaki Shinobu arrives at the Grand Hotel Wien bright and early, just as he and Tsuzuki Mari had planned the night before.

But before the pleasantly smiling man enters the hotel on his way to the practice room downstairs that the hotel had kindly provided them with, someone accosts him on the way.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Shinobu! We've got big trouble brewing inside." Amou Nami puts a damper on Ousaki's sunshine, but this was one case for the books.

"What is it, Nami-san? Are you all right?" Ousaki asks as she sidles him into the cool morning alley beside the hotel's front entrance.

"Kaji-kun didn't come back to the hotel last night." Amou starts seriously with a raised eyebrow full of insinuation.

"Perhaps he met with an old friend. After all, we have to remember, Kaji-kun is well-traveled and he and his father have been to Vienna before—" Ousaki starts to hypothesize, knowing the teenager's tendency to flights of fancy, at times, since he was very young. But Kaji-kun always turned out fine from his innocent boyhood scrapes.

"Does Mori Manami count as an old friend? Shimizu-kun may never, ever be sure of Kaji-kun's whereabouts at what time, but Fuyuumi-chan is certain that Mori-chan didn't return from their dinner out last night."

"I do hope they didn't come to any harm. The streets of Vienna at night can be extremely dark and traffic is—"

"I thought of that, too, Shinobunny. And got right on contacting people and tracking down their cell phone signals to see if they'd been in an accident or something."

"And—?" Ousaki asks, knowing resourceful Amou had excellent sources and instincts as a budding reporter.

"Mori-chan turned hers off early in the evening, so that didn't help. But Kaji-kun's cell was still live and traceable." Amou reports, glancing down at her notepad with the updates like a dogged  
bloodhound on the scent of a trail.

"So...where are they?" Ousaki asks, eyes furrowing with rather uncharacteristic pessimistic thoughts that Amou was instilling with her suspicious gaze.

"In Italy." Amou says succinctly, raising her other brow as well.

"Oh, dear..." Ousaki feels his spirits sinking, then pulls himself together. "But I am sure Kaji-kun has been a perfect gentleman."

"Are you really?" Her doubtful investigative eyes meet his and the pure man blushes at her implied accusation beneath his thick glasses glinting in the early morning sunlight.

"Yes...yes, I believe in the good virtues of others with all my heart." Ousaki Shinobu states with profound conviction.

"Well..." Amou was not so lofty in her outlook on life, and on boys in particular. But his kind smile and genuine optimism moved her enough to believe this time. "I suppose Kaji-kun has always been a good boy, and it'd be hard for me to think that level-headed Mori-chan would let him get away with anything." She admits, cocking her head as Ousaki tucks her arm into his to lead the dubious minded girl back into the hotel.

"That's the spirit!" Ousaki pats her arm in his sunnily condescending way.

"But he IS still a man..." She mumbles under her breath, grumbling the last word almost distastefully, and he gives her a shake of his head with a chuckle as they enter the conference/music room that the group had been utilizing to rehearse.

"Please don't hold that against us all of the time, Ms. Ace Reporter." Placing his hand beseechingly for mercy of his gender atop her cynical one, Ousaki knew how to cajole her sour face into a smile.

"You don't count in that category, Ousaki Shinobu! You're just too good to be one of them." She squeezes his hand, grateful for his  
reassurance, as well as his utter goodness any girl could rely upon.

"I thank you. We do try." He smiles, squeezing her hand back sweetly. She felt quite lucky to have his hand in hers at this moment.

"Then you'd better try that 'believing in the good virtues of others' schtick on him—the Director doesn't look none too happy this  
morning, either! Ooh, when he finds out...whew" With a low whistle, she whispers in Ousaki's ear before she lets go of his hand to scout out more news of the runaway couple, from the gathered group of musicians present.

Before moving on, Ousaki inhales a deep breath when Director Kira enters the room and exchanges a word or two with Tsuzuki Mari before taking a seat to witness the final rehearsal of the ensemble  
before the concert tomorrow.

"Good morning, Tsuzuki-san! Director Kira, how are you today?" Ousaki plunges in, feet first, with his ever-present bright smile proffered on his face in all innocence.

"Good morning, Ousaki-kun." Kira nods politely. His attention was upon the clattering students setting up their instruments and beginning to tune them for a quick practice before going over to the Vienna State Opera House for dress rehearsal. "We do seem rather slow to arrive this morning. I'm counting on the students for a good dress rehearsal today." Kira says, glancing around for the absent important face.

He exchanges a nod with Tsukimori Len, who had been busy all morning already at practice with Hino Kahoko. They were still at it, as Tsukimori's hands on her violin showed her one more time how she should hold it to her chin properly for ideal onstage projection.

At least he takes this concert seriously. Kira thinks, as he makes silent roll call of those here, on time, and how it would affect some students' grades if they decided not to be present, bright and early.

He sees Tsuzuki Mari watching Tsuchiura-kun banging away at a keyboard with that girl on the bench beside him. Shimizu-kun was being poked and prodded awake by Fuyuumi-kun and annoyed by that aggravating Amou Nami. The boy cellist's rosin was still clutched in his hand though he was halfway asleep, halfway rubbing the strings, and still managing to hit the right key.

Of course, Etou Kiriya was already playing. His sharp notes were soothed by the small keyboard playing of his adoring accompanist at his side, and Kira was grateful for at least his nephew's wherewithal.

Hihara-kun and Yunoki-kun were trailed by the latter's sister and fiancee, and they seemed to be in deep discussion with Ousaki-kun over something rather interesting. So that left only—

"Kaji-kun and Mori-san?! I told you guys! I called that one!" Hihara's high, incredulously loud voice cuts through all the chatter and musical tunings, coming blatantly to Kira's now keenly suspicious ear.

"What exactly did you 'call' about Kaji-kun, Hihara-kun? Where is he, anyway?" Kira demands. The dark look on his continually dark face grew even darker as thirteen pairs of eyes glance first at him, and then at each other with the guilty question. Most of them were aware of the rumor by now...

"Present and accounted for, Sir! Sorry for being late! But the plane was—" Dashing in breathlessly, sporting coats with viola in hand next to a huffing and puffing Mori Manami, Kaji begins to explain the take-off trouble of the private jet he had chartered to fly he and Mori back instead of the longer ETA limo drive.

"I thought it would be faster, but—"

Preferring not to know the private affairs of his students, former or otherwise, Kira cuts him off. "I don't even want to know. Just play your part in the ensemble well. That's all I ask." Surprisingly, Kira lets him off easy in his relief that their viola player was here at last.

Everyone looks from Kaji to Mori in a collective curious hush.

"We made it." Kaji whispers in her simultaneously sighing, yawning and laughing ear at his side as she helps him from his coat.

"Of course, Kaji Aoi! You make dreams come true!" In melodic tones, Manami's hand alights upon Kaji's arm with more than simple encouragement, as she smooths his jacket, then hers, of their unkempt overnight excursion's wrinkles. The scent of the ocean breeze was still upon their folds, as she clutches both coats to her chest sentimentally.

Despite their mutual sleeplessness, Kaji Aoi needed for nothing more today to make the strings of his viola's heart and soul rise to unheard of beauty, now at his 'mermaid's' command.

"Knock 'em dead out there, Big Boy." And his siren of the sea knew exactly how to call her dreamy boy floating away on her ocean waves back to the awakening shore again, as Mori pats his blushing cheek with a playful, yet steadying hand.

Every stunned gawker, whether pretending to be preoccupied with preparations to transfer their gear to the Opera House or fully shocked rubbernecking, have their mouth's drop at the familiar physical intimacy passing between the openly flirtatious golden pair as, with lowered eyelids, Kaji practically drools on the girl. He was aiding Mori in her struggle to be extricated from her warm coat from all their rushed exertion so she could quickly change and freshen up before the Seiso group makes the trek across the Ringstrausse and into the Venna State Opera House for the concert's final dress rehearsal.

* * *

Dressed in tuxedos, along with Hino Kahoko in a lovely pale yellow dress, the players live up to their potential, and Kira forgets all thoughts concerning Kaji Aoi's late night escapades, for he did play his viola as well, or better, than usual expectations in the ensemble's final dress rehearsal, as it were.

Kira was tense in his quiet way as he sits on the edge of his seat beside Tsuzuki, Ousaki, Yunoki and Hihara. Tsukimori, Fuyuumi, and unmentionable countless females, serve as audience behind them.

"Etou-kun's performance is impeccable today." Tsukimori Len leans over and whispers to Kira, answering the question the Director had posed last time they were in audience concerning the star violinist.

Ousaki and Tsuzuki nod in agreement beside them both as Etou Kiriya performs both technically flawlessly and emotionally beautifully, as if newly inspired.

"That boy has come into his own." Kira states, with more than a tinge of pride, as Etou's violin strings reach for Mendelssohn's glorious notes and exceed all expectations in his rendering with the ensemble in utmost unity.

Kira notices how his nephew's generally focused, intense gaze so often falls upon a young woman in the audience behind him with a softness he himself never knew existed in the brash youth previously.

Soon into the practice, a familiar gregarious voice comes from behind Kira's head when Kanazawa Hiroto's two hands place themselves on Kira and Tsukimori's shoulders as he leans down with the comment of the classical stringed piece being played onstage.

"Etou looks, acts and sounds a lot like a certain kouhai I used to know at Seiso, once upon a time, back in the day."

"For a second, I thought that was you up there on that stage, Kira..." Kanayan's tease was remembering a dark haired violinist's music, quite fondly.

"Maybe before youth lost its innocence, Kanazawa-senpai." Almost unheard, Kira responds rather reflectively of a happier day gone by.

So low, it was only for Kanayan to hear, but Tsuzuki Mari's keen ears had picked up on the saddened man's wistful words, and she gazes upon him in a new light.

Their old teacher attends the preliminary practice, giving more pleasant support than musical advice, for Kanayan already knew the experienced group of youngsters had skill in spades without him saying a blessed word.

"Don't give the world up just yet, old man. Just look at me! I'm a prime example of second chances." Kanayan says to Kira in the cloakroom, as his wife comes to collect her leading man for that night's opera soon to start, after the afternoon's dress rehearsal wraps up on the legendary stage, and it's transformed into Rigoletto's first act garden again.

Kira, pleased by the ensemble's sound, orders the group to an uneventful dinner and early rest, so they'd all be fresh and prepared for the big day tomorrow.

"And no sneaking away from the hotel." He says, with a particular eye at Kaji Aoi, who hides his red face behind a score sheet. "I want every one of you asleep in your beds no later than ten o'clock. Am I understood?" The Director had laid down the law, not wanting to be humiliated before all of Vienna tomorrow, after he had treated the whole troupe to dinner at the hotel's sixth floor French restaurant named the 'Le Ciel.' Its plush decor and gourmet meals were sure to give the group of eighteen some sweet meringue anglaise dreams that night.

* * *

Tsukimori Len walks Hino Kahoko to her room as they wave, one by one, to the others a 'good night.'

"Kahoko?" The pair stop in the doorway to room 607 that the redhead shared with Amou Nami.

"Yes, Len?" She was getting quite used to the pleasant way his name rolled off her tongue as she looks up to his expectantly beautiful face.

Len marvels at how lovely the blue rose adorning her red hair contrasted and accentuated her tresses.

"Will you—?" He yanks his mind back from their lofty musings and begins to ask that certain something that he's been trying to say for the past week. After loosening his button-up shirt and strangling tie, Tsukimori's nervous hand plunges into the unknown safety of his pocket yet again.

"Yes...?" Hino tries to prompt him, attempting to stay attentive to his words, although the intimate nearness of having his unfettered scent so close was driving her mad. She can't help from leaning her  
adoring head into his rapidly heart thumping chest, his other hand involuntarily wrapping around her flowing crimson strands of hair as he attempts to regroup his mettle.

Just then, another pair steps out from the elevator, looking rather breathless and very red faced from the intense exertion during their vigorous ride up moments before.

"Tsukimori-kun! Hino-san!" Kaji Aoi, from the giddy, giggling way he was stumbling about, must've been drunk on kisses, for Mori made certain that nothing stronger than a ginger ale passed his lips this night.

From the other end of the hallway, a sleepy Shimizu was practically being dragged in, on Fuyuumi's struggling arm, and once more, feeling outflanked, the spell had been broken.

"Sleep well, Kahoko..." With a sigh, Tsukimori gives up yet again. He takes her chin and plants a soft kiss on her lips, but he knew the moment was blown.

He quickly strides past Kaji with a cold shoulder and nothing so much as a 'by your leave.'

"You, too, Len..." Hino whispers, her fingers fluttering a waved farewell to her retreating love, blissfully oblivious still to his torment.

"Mori-san?" Hino waits in the hall, until the golden haired girl had safely deposited her tall admirer in his room, as both she and Kaji had helped Fuyuumi leave Shimizu in it, for the boy was already sound asleep on his feet.

"Oh, Hino-san...!" Mori dances over to where Hino was motioning for her to come and gives our heroine a great big hug.

"Isn't love grand?!" She dizzily whispers in the girl's hair, and then, just as quickly, turns on her heel and waltzes back into her own room.

Hino smiles, knowing exactly how the girl pianist felt. Quickly going inside, she rushes over to her hotel window, just in time to see her Len cross the street, pause, then turn around and look up to give her room one more wistful wave 'good night' with his one free hand, his violin case secured in the other.

"Yes...yes, it is..." Hino whispers dreamily, leaning against the sill and making clouds in the cold windowpanes until she could draw a heart, and write the name 'Len' within it.

Her eyes only for her sweetheart, Kahoko didn't notice a shadowy figure skulking far beneath the moonlight, on this frosty night.

* * *

He had seen Tsukimori Len depart from the Grand Hotel Wien. He had watched the obedient lights on the sixth floor go off, one by one, before ten o'clock, as slowing traffic goes by and by, not noticing the single, furtive dark man, who was lurking in corners of the dark world, through a dark pair of sunglasses he had felt a dark desire to hide behind.

He leans against the Vienna Opera House's building, knowing full well he was invited inside to watch the Rigoletto opera his former senpai of a tenor was starring in.

But something was eating at him, and a crowd was not the place for him to be. In this entire world, there were few places, if any, where Kira Akihiko felt like he could fit in.

There was no one he really cared to spend time with, beyond his sister's child. And even his relationship with Kiriya was tepid at best, most days. There was very little that Kira felt any degree of passion for, and even if he thought he could try—

Well, even that, would be a futile waste of time...

All week she seemed to care more to be with someone else, but in his mind, Kira can't help but keep seeing the only woman he'd ever felt his equal, after he'd lost his beloved sister.

Mari was the only woman he'd ever felt anything for, other than contempt at the way many a gold-digging damsel flounced their wares his way in the past.

Because she wasn't like them at all.

For in Tsuzuki Mari's lovely, well-manicured features, Kira saw a desperate longing of her own there.

A longing—for someone else.

_Hmph_.

The proud man that Kira Akihiko was, would never admit that he was jealous of Ousaki Shinobu. Assessing, in his grand conceit, that he was far better a violinist, a far more important pillar of society—certainly a richer wealthier mogul than that little sunshine boy in shiny glasses—

"Director Kira...? Don't you wish to attend the opera? The orchestra is quite astounding and Kanazawa-san is singing very well indeed. You'll miss Kanazawa-san's solo coming up soon in Act Two, if you don't come in after this short intermission." The woman herself, Tsuzuki Mari, says tentatively, as she emerges from the Opera House in search of the missing man.

Kanayan had sent her a message to 'Find that Darn fool, probably sulking outside! Go drag him in to listen to me sing, damn it!' after the opera sensation had glimpsed Kira's empty front row seat that he'd arranged for, beside Tsuzuki-san.

"No." He says in a clipped, almost angered voice, which he soon amends upon seeing her startled expression at his coldness. "You'd better go back in, or you'll miss the rest of the opera. Don't worry about me. I just need some air." Kira makes excuses, unaccustomed to the feelings he was now experiencing.

"It's far too cold to stand out here like this." She says, removing the purplish gray scarf from her own neck, and begins wrapping it around his.

"...No, it's not...I'm fine. Thank you anyway, Tsuzuki-kun." Kira answers stubbornly, pulling away, but Mari could be just as stubborn.

"You're going to catch pneumonia. You're not even properly attired for Vienna's cold weather." She succeeds in wrapping the scarf around his stiff neck, for the unseasonal warmth of yesterday had been blown away by a windy cold front upon the city.

"I assure you, Tsuzuki-kun—" Kira turns a sharp eye on her, his voice growing gruff. "I know my own senses. I don't need anyone to tell me how I feel."

"Do you...sir? I didn't think you had any feeling left at all." She couldn't take any more of his indifference, and there were tears in her eyes, for she was waiting for him to give her some sign of fondness, or even slight interest.

But the pompous, self-reliant spirit in Kira Akihiko rarely showed that side of himself to anyone.

Can I even feel anymore? Kira was starting to think he could not, for jealousy had turned him even more bitter, chaining him to the lonely world he thought was his destiny.

Now left alone, since a disheartened Mari had gone back inside, Kira indeed feels depressed and abandoned by hope. Gazing up, his eyes catch the first few flakes of snow fall...and then...

"KIRA AKIHIKO!" A voice comes spiraling down towards him through the darkened sky.

"Oh, no...just what I needed..." Kira sighs under his breath, in frustration, knowing what annoyance was descending upon him.

"You are an ungrateful wretched creature, you know! You are mistreating your gift, your blessing, you know! You made Tsuzuki Mari cry! I saw you, you know!" Lili comes plunging down with the snow, as furious as a raging tornado with a toothache.

"Leave me be, Argento." Kira dejectedly answers this vicious accusation, though inside his heart, he accepted it was true.

"I have been 'leaving you be' for the entire week, Kira Akihiko! And look at what you've done to our friend, Tsuzuki Mari, you know! I 'd be ashamed to admit that you were the grandson of that great man who saved me, you know! The one I've been telling all the other Fata about as I've visited all across Europe, you know! They would be ashamed to know you, too, you know! Kira Akihiko! Whatever you have done to hurt her feelings, you must apologize immediately, you know!" Lili berates him, encircling Kira's head with his fairy wings at dizzying speed.

"And if I don't?" Kira himself was already half-inclined to beg the woman's forgiveness. He really had a small place inside that was weak against feminine tears. But to be ordered to do so by this tiny, little troublesome bug?

No. It was a matter of principle, and his manly pride, as he dares to dare Lili.

"If you don't...you know?! If you don't...you know...!?" Lili repeats, his voice bewildered at being challenged, then turns darkly foreboding, with a touch of insanity in the evil chuckle that follows.

"If you don't, I won't bless your concert tomorrow, Kira Akihiko! I'll make sure it fails, you know!" Trying to hit Kira where he knew it hurt, Lili's eyes were crazed as he flutters around Kira's by now pounding head.

But even in this frenzied state, Kira had known the music Fata all his life. He knew he would never curse his own precious friends, nor their music. Hino-kun had a special relationship with the fairy, for instance, and Lili would not betray her or the others' genuine love of music under any circumstance.

"I think not, Argento." Having the upper hand, Kira brushes off the empty threat, along with Lili's double fisted little trembling body as well.

With that, the Director turns and marches right into the Opera House, going to his front row seat and sits beside the red-eyed woman, who was still dabbing her eyes as the Intermission time draws to a close.

After crossing his arms and long legs uncomfortably, Kira purposely meets her suppressed eyes, and rewards them with a kind smile, as she adultly tries to smile back civilly, though her hands were in secret fists upon her elegant lap.

His cold hand places itself atop her pensive fist, softly pulling one to the armrest, obscuring its small size almost completely beneath.

In disbelief, Mari looks from their hands as his fingers interlace with hers, to gaze up into his apologetic face.

"There are no excuses for my rudeness, especially since you spoke only in concern for my health. I am deeply ashamed of myself and beg your forgiveness...Mari..." He says with an authentic warm smile, feeling her refined soul melt the ice curtain over his own heart as the actual curtain begins to rise for Rigoletto's Act 2, the pair's hands still intertwined...

* * *

As the curtain rises upon his palace, 'Duke' Kanazawa's eyes see Kira and Tsuzuki's embraced appendages. He smiles with a personal nod at them, as he begins to sing 'Ella Mi furapita' and 'Parmi Veder le Lagme'—all about lost love and womanly tears, fitting for the scene playing in the front row before him as well.

As the acclaimed opera runs through its triumphs and tragedies into Act three's romance, Mari feels Kira's ever-present hand upon hers the entire time. She was far too happy to be truly moved by the climactic death scene, though Caterina Kanazawa did the role justice. The tall blonde woman with a powerful yet sweet voice was a lovely thing to behold. After it was over, they go backstage to congratulate the opera stars.

"Never say never." Kanayan had expressed in between make-up and costume change to his obstinate, throat-clearing friend.

* * *

Kira then escorts Mari out into the cold night air as they discuss the opera on the walk back to the hotel.

"Kanazawa-san and his wife both sing magnificently. I do love opera, don't you, Director?" She asks, all the tears from before completely vanished.

"When they're done properly, yes. Yes, I do enjoy it." Kira says sedately, sharing with her a rare honest smile.

"Oh, I agree. That makes all the difference! And this one was done very well, indeed. Verdi's music is just so integral to the entire...opera..." Mari's enthusiastic voice trails off into a more quiet tone, as if she had the life just sucked out of her by something her eyes had glimpsed in the night scene.

"Mari?" Kira's own eyes follow her gaze to the noisy couple laughing loudly, shrieking in delight and having general fun across the avenue.

There strolled Ousaki Shinobu with Amou Nami on his arm, loudly chuckling at his must be thrilling conversation.

The giddy two pause every now and then, to take a picture of Ousaki with some statue or another—or just him in the new fallen snow, in some silly pose she put him in, on the park's walkways where sedate Ousaki Shinobu was joining in his Nami's happy laughter heartily.

After she puts away her camera in her backpack, he takes both of her chilled hands in his, blowing hot air into them, as she giggles gleefully, tickled by his breath. He continues to care for her frozenfingers, rubbing them for warmth, kissing them for love as, from the 'goodies' pocket, Ousaki produces a flowery bracelet he had picked up for her earlier, and slips it on one of Amou's pleased wrists, that then throw themselves around his pleasantly surprised neck as reward.

* * *

"Ousaki-kun...and Amou-san make a very cute couple." Mari suddenly says out of nowhere. Kira jerks his head to look over at her, confused.

"But I thought..." Kira starts to plunge into the area he had zero expertise in—romance. He always felt inadequate to express what he felt inside about another person, and never imagined he would ever wish to after tragedy struck his world.

"Although, I think it's too cold to be romping in such weather, don't you?" She rubs her own frozen fingers together for heat, glancing up at the frosty sky.

"Yes, but..." Kira stumbles for words, following her gaze upwards as a sprinkle of fairy dust falls in his upturned face.

"'But' nothing, Kira Akihiko! You would love to take Tsuzuki Mari to the Rosen Garten for hot coffee and cakes! You just won't admit it because you're too stubborn to show you like her, you know! After all, I know you better than you know yourself since you were a snot-nosed little brat who was scared of the dark, you know! Kira Akihiko! I've got more secrets to share, too, you know! Like the fact that he's a 'Sweets Monster', Tsuzuki Mari! So move it, Kira Akihiko, unless you want me to remember more nuggets of truth, you know! It's too cold to stand out here all night, you know!" Lili laughs at the jaw-dropped stoic Director wickedly, as he rubs his own little freezing paws together, poofing away in a cloud of frozen puffs.

"Is it true?" She meets Kira's eyes, which immediately change from anger at Lili at unsettled embarrassment at her.

"Are you a 'sweets monster' who'd like to take me for an after opera dessert, Kira-san?" Mari asks with a teasing smile, breaking the ice, so to speak, though her head was still spinning from all of Lili's revelations spit out at machine-gun bullet speed.

"A lot of what that damn Fata says is true." Kira answers, shaking his head at the vindictive creature. "That's the problem..." He adds, mumbling under his breath.

"Is it? A problem, I mean?" Catching it, Mari asks him, recalling how Lili had blessed the two of them, though her heart was as uncertain as his in this new endeavor as her eyes search his for even a small glint of hope.

And he gives it.

"No, Mari...it's not a problem." Kira's voice lightens from its usual monotone rumble, as does the heaviness of his icy heart. It melts instead, even as snow continues to fall outside. All thoughts of Ousaki and Amou (who were tossing sparse snowballs at each other by now) vanished into thin air as Kira offers the lady his arm, as he leads her into the hotel's front lobby where the Rosen Garten cafe awaited the tentative couple, with a bounty of sweet surprises to go with their adult coffee mood, warm and safe as the fairy blessed snow accumulates its magic on the Viennese landscape...


	37. Chapter 37 - The Ideal Sound

**Chapter 37: "The Ideal Sound"**

It seemed like a lifetime since Mori Manami was last in this hotel room. She peeks out the door's tiny peephole to ascertain if a certain glamorous young man had truly given up on those so very enticing kisses she had bid him 'good night' with already.

Flattered, exhilarated, exhausted—Mori dances through the deluxe suite on air, hugging an entertained Fuyuumi Shoko to her chest with a girlish sigh.

"I'm sooooo happy, Fuyuumi-chan! Almost as happy as I am tired, though, and desperately needing a bath more than either of those!" Finishing her twirling waltz with a giggle, Mori smiles as Fuyuumi nods in vague understanding, as the golden girl's eyelids droop heavy from the all-night Mediterranean adventure in the romantic flight Kaji Aoi swept her off her feet to. Playfully opening her eyes wide, Mori chuckles deliriously, spinning poor Fuyuumi around once more in her excited exuberance until the pale aqua haired girl was quite dizzy.

"A nice, looong hot bath..." Mori coos at the thought of the warm waters swirling around her tired aching body. She begins to hum the tune that the sea sang for both she and her handsome hopeless romantic, on a midnight filled with cresting ocean waves that made her indeed feel like the mermaid he claimed her to be.

Mori throws off her clothes, scattered here and there, as recent memories of his soft, stolen kisses carry her to the dream-filled bath's bubbling waters with a complete, fulfilled sigh. A vision of Kaji Aoi in full Arabian prince garb, her very own gorgeous cyan blue-eyed Lawrence of Arabia carries Mori to the rest of her sea foam fantasies.

"And if a dashing young college student with golden hair comes calling to sweep me away to another of the seven seas—" Mori calls from her steamy bath lounge. "Tell him his mermaid's soaking her scaly fins and can't be disturbed 'til morning." The normally practical girl only delved in occasional flights of fancy, but Kaji Aoi's numerous kisses had that effect on her, it seemed, as she immerses herself in the hot waters with a frisky smile.

"Hee, hee, hee..." Fuyuumi Shoko knew that her roommate was only joking that Kaji-senpai might come to their door and demand to see her at this time of night.

She hoped, at least.

But when she hears a loud thud in the hallway, followed by pittering taps and noises, of someone obviously on the move, skulking in the passage, Fuyuumi can't help her heart from jumping to conclusions.

"M-m-mori-san?" In mid-cleaning of her clarinet for the thousandth time this nervous pre-performance night, Fuyuumi whispers, terrified. But the sleepy 'mermaid' had already drifted back to the seas amidst sea foam.

At first unsure whether to sit still until the sounds went away or confront them, Fuyuumi, with clarinet still hand, decides to steel her nerves and crack open the door. She peers out when the expected unexpected knock doesn't come to their door.

No Kaji Aoi skulking in corners, but who she does see catches her startled breath in her throat.

There, leaning against the left side of the hallway was indeed a golden head! But it wasn't that of the politician's amorous son. It was Shimizu Keiichi, looking rather in distress.

Throwing abandon to the wind, she rushes out in her night wrap and slippers, into the hallway of the hotel to break his fall. The numerous papers and bow clutched in one lethargic hand, and oversized cello held in the other, quite unbalanced the stumbling boy.

"S-S-shimizu-kun! A-are you a-a-all right?" Fuyuumi worries about his nighttime wanderings, wondering if sleepwalking was solely to blame.

"Oh, good. You have your clarinet, Shoko." Shimizu mumbles, as if nothing was wrong, smiling as he gazes at the instrument Fuyuumi had been cleaning, still in her hand.

"'Keiichi' has to speak to Director Kira." Shimizu purposely states, a determined stubborn look on his furrowed brow upon her for her error in calling him 'Shimizu' again. He repositions his cello in his arms, all forgotten in a second.

Fuyuumi scampers alongside his resolute stride down the hall, if only to discover what he was up to, at this time of night.

"But...the Director strongly advised us all to go to sleep early tonight. I don't think we should disobey..." Fuyuumi trails off as Shimizu gives her that angelically polite smile that said he wasn't even listening, as he simply turns and continues his undaunted path towards Kira's executive suite near the end of the quiet hall.

In her pale aqua frilly sleeved nightgown, Fuyuumi follows his relentless trek, picking up the fallen pages of sheet music he leaves in his wake.

* * *

_Knock, knock, knock!_

When no answer comes to the Director's suite door 601, Fuyuumi's twittering heart is glad. But when she looks to Shimizu's disappointed face, she can't help but feel guilty for the selfish thought.

_He looks so distressed...my poor Keiichi..._

Fuyuumi doesn't even realize it, but her hand had traveled to his cheek on its own volition, as she then brushes the loose strands of yellow hair from his forehead subconsciously. She doesn't even remember herself when his face brightens into a shy smile at her fingers' soft touch.

The rapturous gaze between them may never have ended, if not for the sudden unlatching sound of the door they were standing in front of. It mysteriously pulled open, though no occupant was there to welcome them in.

"Go on in, Shoko. The Director must be expecting us..." Shimizu's smile glows even more content as he ushers the girl into the darkened room. Fuyuumi swallows hard, entering the pitch black room, when a small flickering light's tail end catches her straining eye in the darkness.

"Keiichi!" She squeals out in fear, when her one free hand flailing out is caught by his warm, reassuring one.

"I'm here, Shoko. Don't ever be afraid to walk through the darkness. I'll always be that shadow following your shining jewel, lighting my way." Shimizu whispers. Fuyuumi's cold fear is warmed by his sweet voice and soft presence.

"Now, where is the switch...?" Shimizu murmurs to himself more than to her. His hand searches the walls, as he puts his cello down.

_Click!_

The lights suddenly come on, as if by magic, although Shimizu's wandering fingertips never did locate that switch.

"Oh. Thank you, Shoko, you found it first." He smiles at his startled companion, for Fuyuumi had believed it was he who had turned the lights on. Glancing around nervously, she has a strange feeling they weren't alone in the room.

"But—" Fuyuumi starts to protest as oblivious Shimizu casually begins to clear a space in the executive suite's plush sitting room area. He pushes the coffee table aside, as he pulls the fancy Victorian style pale green loveseat across the rose embroidered rugs, as if it was not an issue, to land beneath the chandelier alongside a gold-gilt chair facing the terrace's scenic nightscape.

"There's a chair for you, Shoko, please, sit and play with me while we wait for the Director." Shimizu motions for the puzzled girl to have a seat on the petite chair.

After arranging his own seat just so, to direct the sound of his cello towards the center of the room, he begins to play as if in a perfectly natural environment.

I must just be uptight because it's so late... Fuyuumi shakes off the strange feeling her senses were giving her.

Giving in to his whim, she sits where directed, immediately picking up her clarinet's part of the musical duet she had learned and loved so well, with a smile. They both knew it now by heart.

Fuyuumi wondered, as she played, why Shimizu had brought all the sheet music of 'Heaven's Sent Breeze,' since they both knew it thoroughly, backwards and forwards, by now. But she doesn't question it. All the notes and papers he had dropped in the hall were tucked safely in her pocket until he should ask for them.

Little did the pair know they were being watched by more pairs of eyes than to be found in a whole field of potatoes with every soaring musical note being blessed in so many ways.

* * *

"It appears to be quiet on the Western front." Kira Akihiko says to Tsuzuki Mari. It was his best attempt at levity in an uncomfortable moment as he nods his head towards the left side of the hall.

"And on the Eastern front, as well." Mari joins the jibe, cocking her dark head towards the right row of rooms.

"It's good to see the students striving to tow the line I put down." Kira clears his throat as they walk, side by side, towards their suites at the end of the hall—just one opposing door to the other.

"No doubt they can clearly see you've only their best interests at heart. Anyone could see, when you speak, the entire world becomes...clear..." Tsuzuki Mari feels her own heart pounding wildly as the tall, dark and handsome man walks her to her door. The two adults stop to stare at one another. Kira's heart was pounding as well, in perfect rampant rhythm with hers.

"Would you...care for a nightcap...Mari...? I've not inspected it myself, but the bar in my room is said to be well-stocked. I've been repeatedly informed of it by the eager-to-please management." His red eyes were deep upon her, as he nervously invites the woman into his hotel room.

"I..." Mari looks into his eyes deeply.

_Is that...love...I see in your eyes? Is this what it's like to be pursued by love? To discover a new world of gentle feelings together?_

"I really think...we should turn in early to be fresh for tomorrow, too, as you wisely advised the students." Mari backs off, and immediately regrets the reversed inward look caused by her words that was returning to Kira's no longer hopeful face.

"Yes, you're right. Of course. Good night, Tsuzuki-kun." Kira takes a step backwards, in more ways than one, and bows gentlemanly, with a cool nod at the lady.

"Good night, Director." Mari responds with a sad, reluctant tinge in her voice to just let him go like that, after the promising evening spent together.

* * *

Into his own door, the lonely figure enters. Kira's mind was so absorbed with what should and should not have been said just then replayed, that he did not hear the two singular sounds joined in melodious harmony within the room at first.

"What the—?" Kira was about to angrily vent his frustrations on the two, disobedient miscreants who broke into his room, while he was absent, when...

"Shhhh! KIRA AKIHIKO!" Lili's tiny hands both cup over Kira's twitching lips and even darker eyebrows are aimed at the Fata. "You dare to, you damn—" Kira's attempt to bite down on Lili's hand was cut off by the spiteful fairy magically clamping the man's mouth closed, shut tight.

Kira shakes his head, his hands, though first going to his unable to speak throat, move to strangle Lili's instead. The throttled Argento zaps away in his own steaming mad blink.

"It's not MY fault Tsuzuki Mari turned you down flat, you know!" Lili whispers viciously directly in his ear, causing Kira's red eyes to pop in anger. "And don't be giving me those big, bad eyes! Close them! And listen, you know!" Lili's angry frown turns upside down.

"Let the music sweep you away..."

Though perplexed, upset and irritated at the annoying creature, the true musical soul beating within Kira Akihiko can't help but do Lili's bidding.

He closes his eyes and opens his ears, his silent mouth twitching with a small smile as he hears the cello's low, deep strings calling out, and a wistful clarinet answering with a previously unheard of melody, both fresh and lovely—the ideal music new to Kira's ears, bringing pride to his angry, disappointed soul with its underlying message of hope and uplifting unity.

It was a perfect, ideal sound for new beginnings.

_Knock, knock._

"Director Kira, I'd like to apologize." Tsuzuki Mari had come with her heart in her hands, to beg his pardon. She was surprised again when the prosaic man yanks open the door and speechlessly pulls her in with a strong arm.

Shocked, she looks into his face for an explanation of his sudden passion. He points first to his stuck-shut mouth, then to Lili floating nearby. Both he and the Fata then point into the sitting room, around the front entrance breezeway and the beautiful sound emanating from it explains the rest.

"Shimizu-kun and Fuyuumi-san's duet? I don't understand why they're here." Mari whispers softly the question.

"I do." Kira's eyes meet Lili's as the fairy sees fit to release his silent mouth to speak, as man and fairy exchange a wordless nod. "Come with me, Tsuzuki-san." He says quietly, without looking at her.

"Please...Mari." He adds, meeting her eyes with a smile.

She was relieved that he'd call her by her first name and look at her again like that. For in his eyes was still something that might be called 'love...'

"Shimizu Keiichi." In his commanding voice, Kira turns the dark corner where the trio was obscured from the performing pair of musicians, while Mari claps enthusiastically, as the final note of 'Heaven's Sent Breeze' comes to its crescendo.

Fuyuumi nearly falls from her chair, but Shimizu's sleepy-lidded eyes and tender hand for once steady the startled girl's fall.

"Oh, Director Kira." Shimizu addresses his school Director with a lazy smile. "We've been waiting for you. Hello, Lili." Shimizu was always at home wherever he was—as long as his cello was in his musical embrace.

"I've been meaning to ask you—" Shimizu continues to rattle on,  
before anyone else could speak.

"Yes, I know what about. Mari, perhaps you could escort Fuyuumi-kun back to her room. I'm sure she's tired and requires her rest." Kira orders, seeing the fear and exhaustion playing on the girl's face, in her pajamas displayed before him as he tries to avert his eyes.

Mari nods, and puts a comforting arm around Fuyuumi's shoulders as she walks the girl out.

"And Fuyuumi-kun, thank you for that moving performance." Kira affords the shy girl a smile. "Tsuzuki-kun, before you go," Mari pauses to look up and meet his eye, realizing he wouldn't call her by anything more familiar in front of others, that the kind of man he was.

"May I look forward to being your escort to the concert tomorrow?" Tsuzuki Mari's eyes brighten with a introspective nod, as Kira's smile showed her that glimmer of love again.

He waits to speak again until after the two ladies' departure from the room and the door was closed. "You wish to ask me if Fuyuumi-kun and yourself could perform that composition you wrote on tomorrow's stage. Since it is your graduation this concert is in celebration of, and you have been an exemplary student through all your years at Seiso Music Academy, holding the top honor this year, Shimizu Keiichi, I am inclined to—" Kira starts to capitulate to Shimizu's wish, when Lili flitters around, bursting in with laughter and a light show.

"HURRAY FOR KIRA AKIHIKO! You do have heart somewhere in there, you know!" Zapping up to him, Lili pounds Kira's chest over his heart with a pair of tiny fists.

"Stop that." Kira barks at the strange glowing creature.

"Oh, you knew. Thank you, Director Kira." Shimizu says, drowsilycomplacent. "Now the whole world will be able to hear my gift from Heaven—mine and Shoko's. I'm glad." Shimizu's entire face was a smile as he bows respectfully to the older man. "I can go get some sleep now that I've fulfilled my mission." Shimizu simply turns to leave.

"Oh, and Lili," he whispers quietly to the Fata, and points his bow towards Kira's bedroom door. "Your friends have already fallen asleep in the other room. They were kind enough to tell Shoko and I all about your adventures in the Old World, after they heard us playing. They were very happy you invited them to stay here. We played them to sleep, but I think you should let them rest more. There's so many of them, and they're very lively. Good night." Shimizu prattles on, as if the idea of a roomful of mischievous, musical, magical meddlers was an everyday occurrence to him.

Kira's eyes grow dark in the moment he deciphers Shimizu's brutally honest, terrible news of impending doom, as the boy angel leaves the room with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Argento..." Kira growls darkly. "You will pay if the boy meant what I think he meant." Crossing the room, Kira throws open the door that Shimizu's sleepy hand had motioned towards.

And there, to Kira Akihiko's utter horror and disdain, was not one, not ten, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, of little pairs of iridescent wings, all blowing in each other's harmoniously snoring, melodically snoozing breathing. Winds of fairy dust scatter all over the large king-sized bed that now housed a couple hundred or so of annoying magical pests tonight.

Both fate and Fata both enjoyed playing tricks on this man of musical lineage. Kira Akihiko angrily slams the door shut as he turns a contorted face, enraged upon Lili—only to have the entire swarm of the yellow fairy's friends, family and relations—and even some Fata tag-along party crashers Lili had never seen before—explode through the keyhole.

There would be no rest for Kira Akihiko this night, if the overly inquisitive, excessively noisy, ecstatically excitable, extremely ill-mannered band of fairies had any say in the matter.

And they sure did have a lot to say, starting with introducing themselves by name and Fata rank to 'that man,' one by one in so many foreign European tongues. Shimizu had put it lightly to call this motley crew merely 'lively' as Kira feels like kicking his too kind grandfather for all of this mischief he had caused all those years ago.

"Argento! Can't you get rid of them!? I need some rest...please..." Kira pleads with the only partly sane creature in the room, who knew its own mind able enough to speak properly with, for Lili had learned to live with mortals, even grumpy ones, such as this, rather well.

"No, Kira Akihiko, I'm afraid I cannot, you know. They're family, you know! And truly, family is important, Kira Akihiko, I know, you know." Lili shrugs apologetically with Kira in disbelief that the little imp finally felt an emotion he could connect with.

Shouts and singing, clattering and clamor, malarkey and mischief were all invited to the party that only he was deemed privileged to hear, for they filled Kira Akihiko's pragmatic ears that night with everlasting music. Many times through that long night, Kira often considered going over to sleep in Mari's room—ahem—sleep only, really.

But the terrible thought that the gaggle of winged ghouls may follow him out of the hellish hole of his hotel room and into hers, made him chivalrously endure.

_I suppose, compared to your relatives, you're not so bad, Argento Lili. After all, you brought Tsuzuki Mari to me... For your sake, Mari, and the sake of tomorrow's melody, I must live through this madness tonight._

Kira pulls his pillow over his head and shuts his eyes tightly, though visions of 'sugar-plum fairies' still danced about in his nightmarish head even when the lights were off.


	38. Chapter 38 - Morning Hiccups

**Chapter 38:** "**Morning Hiccups"**

The day had finally arrived. With only half-hearted attempts, Lili wasn't able to entirely hold back the enthusiastically mischievous antics of any of his fairy family. They proceed to torment Kira Akihiko until he's near driven to distraction.

Kira rises quite early in the morning after his sleepless night in order to escape the multitudes of inconsiderate fairies, but to no avail. Hordes of them noisily greeted the poor, fleeing man in so many foreign tongues of gibberish, the director of Seiso feared for his sanity as he bathed with fairies, shaved with fairies, and even brushed his teeth with fairies encircling his dizzied beyond frustration head.

Taking the manly route, Kira Akihiko chooses to ignore them entirely as if they didn't exist. Not a single word passes his lips to a one of them, angering some of the hotter tempered creatures, though others were too self-absorbed in endless prattle to realize his silence was in defiance of them.

After Kira quickly dresses in record time, despite the countless annoyances swarming about, he makes his getaway, slamming the door behind him to vent even a small tender of his irritation, as if that display of anger would keep the Fata at bay inside the hotel room.

But, alas, some more eager Fata pay no never mind to 'that man', venturing out into the Grand Hotel Wien's ornate halls nonetheless, as they ignore Lili's plaintive pleas above the cacophony to stay together, too. Some winged adventurers decide to use their magic to squeeze through some of the 6th floor keyholes. And though pleasantly ditzy Kaji Aoi was grateful for their eager help in rousing a sleepy Shimizu Keiichi awake and most of the girls were entertained by the sweet little be-winged creatures musical wakeup call, more than one frisky fairy gets an earful from the other groggy musicians, Tsuchiura Ryotaro the prime example of that.

So from the first moment he was rudely awakened by a portly little tub of a trumpet tooting fairy in his ear, Tsuchiura knew this was going to be one of those days.

"Get off! You're even stupider than Lili! Why are you all here, anyway?" Tsuchiura grumbles sourly under his breath as he angrily sees the clock's hands not yet even pointing at 7AM.

"We're here, we're there, we must; sprinkle you with our magic fairy dust!" The fat fairy's equally obese partner 's rhyming song was enough to give down-to-earth Tsuchiura a royal headache.

"It's way too early for this kind of nonsense!" Tsuchiura figures that his peaceful sleep was doomed now, as he sits bolt upright and watches through disbelieving hazy eyes as streams of new Fata flow in and out of his bedroom and the next attached one, like it was some sort of toll booth/drive thru window.

"Are these annoying little gnats at you in there, too, Etou?" Tsuchiura calls sympathetically into the connecting bedroom where the wine-colored lead violinist resided as his roommate. As he waits for the terse boy's answer, Tsuchiura swats one or two of the Russian accented creatures away from their ogling study of his appendages.

"Oh! Looky at dese big hands! Good for piano, you know, da?" The Russkie Fata was fascinated by the soccer player's massive digits.

"Beat it! Or these big hands will break off your puny wings and crunch you in two, like the bugs you are!" Tsuchiura threatens, flexing his large fingers, not realizing that you never messed with a fairy's most precious possession—his wings.

"Oh, boshe moi! Let us see about dat! You know!" The insulted Fata zaps the gigantic offensive big lug with one of its spells. Tsuchiura is sent up! Up! Up! Until his backside nearly touched the hotel room ceiling.

"Now who is the 'puny' one, Comrade? Ha, ha, ha! You know!? What good are your big hands now, Gorilla Man? Huh?!" The Russian Fata is joined in his laughter by a short little Czech Fata, they cackling and pointing at Tsuchiura as the big man lunges for the  
crystal chandelier for his buoyant body to have something at least to hang onto, Tsuchiura totally disliking that anti-grav feel.

"Etou! A little assistance, please!?" Tsuchiura yells down towards his roommate's door. "Etou! Come on! Get your scrawny butt out of bed and do something!" Tsuchiura calls out again, getting a little perturbed at the teen's ignorance of his senpai.

"Shout all you like, Big One! There's nobody in there to rescue you, nah-nah, you know!" A Lithuanian fairy flutters from Etou's vacant room.

"Where is he? What have you done with Etou?!" Tsuchiura Ryotaro protectively jumps to conclusions, as the growing group of Fata swarm beneath and around the angry floating young man like a dastardly gang of malicious n'eer-do-wells, all innocently putting up their hands in an instantaneous shrugging denial of guilt.

"Tsuchiura! We heard your yelling from across the hall! Are you—whoa! Lots more!" Hihara Kazuki clamors in the door and into Tsuchiura's bedroom. He seemed more surprised by the gaggle of gossiping, chuckling Fata enjoying the 'human float display' than Tsuchiura Ryotaro actually being the victimized hot air balloon entertaining the sicko fata spectators.

"Hihara-senpai! Make them put me down!" Tsuchiura scowls at his gleeful audience who were already passing around popcorn and candies to one another and even selling front row tickets to the show.

"Ummmm...Can you do anything, Mcki?" Hihara turns to the friendly Irish Fata, who he'd become rather chummy with since they were introduced to each other during Hihara's happy singing in the shower with his bar of Irish Spring this morning.

"Sure'n I can, you know!" The bright orange haired Fata rings out optimistically in Irish tones. "All yer big friend's got to do is follow me instructions!"

"Listen to him, Tsuchiura! Mcki's gonna get you down!" Hihara was, if nothing else, gullible in many ways.

"Make it quick! I don't like it up here." The sports jock grumbles anxiously.

"Fine and fine again, friend Soochira. Follow Mcki's lead!" The Irish Fata was at least helpful. "Spin to the left, take yer right hand. Spit in its palm, on yer left foot you'll sure'n land!" The green clothed fairy dances the peculiar song's motions himself. "Now's yer turn!" He  
expects 'Soochira' to follow suit.

"That's just plain dumb. I won't do it. It's too humiliating." Tsuchiura crinkles his face childishly in disdain.

"Come on, Tsuchiura! Watch! It's easy!" Hihara offers to be guinea pig as he recalls the chant quite incorrectly and follows the words with funny results. "Let's see...um...spin to the right! Take your left hand, spit in it..." Hihara spins and then disgustingly spits in his left palm as if it were an everyday occurrence. "...On your right foot, you'll sure'n—ahhhh! Mcki!" It was Hihara's turn now to be a 'Macy's Parade' float. He comically floats out of control alongside Tsuchiura, who sighs as he rolls his eyes.

"You said the chant backwards, Friend Hihara...oooh! How do I be reversin' it now?" The flaming haired fairy wonders aloud.

"Quel dommage! Sacre bleu!" A French Parisian Fata flutters in alongside the indigo haired Yunoki Azuma, after hearing Hihara's airborne screeches amidst all the commotion.

"Perhaps, if we ask the other Fatas kind pardon for your inhospitable welcome and doubtless harsh words that were simply said in the heat of the moment's unintended anger...?" Yunoki walks into the room, with all the charm and graces back that he'd been lacking in the past few days. But this morning somehow, the usually pasted smile felt genuinely hopeful and friendly, as he tries to truly aid his friends.

"All right! I'm sorry I said anything about tearing off your wings." Tsuchiura concedes to his wealthy senpai's wisdom.

"And—? You know!" The stubborn Russian Fata instigator was not as forgiving as his ditzy Baltic relations.

Tsuchiura's mind races. "And I'm sorry I called you...stupid and...different kinds of insects and...puny? I can't remember everything I said now! But I'm sorry for all that, too! Okay?!" Tsuchiura finishes after a glance from Yunoki's raised eyebrow.

"Wow. You called them all that? No wonder they're mad!" Hihara dumbly comments to his fellow 'floater.'

"Shut up, Hihara-senpai." Tsuchiura berates him, not wanting to exacerbate the situation with the already perturbed Fata.

"Well, because you asked so nicely, Comrade. My name is Dmitri. It is nice to meet you, Comrade Soochira." Dmitri the Fata flies up and offers his fat paw to the young man as Ryo begins to float back down to the ground.

"Likewise, Dmitri." Tsuchiura begrudgingly plays along as Yunoki prompts him to smile and act congenial.

"Oh, good. That's all settled then, and we're all dear friends, who have earned one another's respect." Yunoki diplomatically says. His charm was back in action, but this time truly helpful as the other Fata applaud the touching scene of man bonding with Fata.

"Bon! Bon! Mon ami!" The French fairy turns a polished monocled eye upon his chosen companion's gracious expressions.

"Would you all care to join us for breakfast? I think I know a discreet little nook where we would all be welcomed." Yunoki invites the chaotic swarm to dine with him. Most of the gaggle of fairies trail the winsome well-borne young man out the door and down the hall like his old SeisoAcademy 'Yunoki Guard' used to.

He pauses in his elegant stride to gentlemanly gather a patiently waiting Ayano upon his arm, like a true prince with glittering fairy entourage in his sparkling wake.

"Where's Kazuki-san?" Miyabi asks her brother at the door.

"He's still in Tsuchiura's room, I believe." Engrossed with Ayano, Yunoki answers his little sister casually, though omitting a small fact.

Although thinking Yunoki crazy, Tsuchiura and his new-found fairy friend were about to follow his suave senpai's lead and pick Mizue up, when he hears a faint call from above.

"Ummm...Tsuchiura?" There, still clinging to the chandelier at the ceiling level, was Hihara Kazuki. Crooked smile and biting lip on his face, showed his distress at being forgotten way up there.

Tsuchiura exchanges a glance with his Russian Fata buddy.

"Kazuki-san?!" Miyabi cries out at seeing her beloved in such desperate straits, as she dashes through the open door and into the room.

"Hi there, Miyabi-chan! Just hanging around! Heh, heh, heh..." Floating, gangly legged Hihara wiggles some waving fingers in greeting down at his girl's wide eyes, knowing that this morning's hijinks were going to take a lot of serious explaining indeed.

* * *

Just then...

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up, Sleepyheads! You've all got a _Stage_ to catch! Ha ha, I crack me up! UP?! Hiha—"

Kanazawa Hiroto was doing his drill master/ tough sergeant routine rather too well, going to each of the Grand Hotel Wien's 6th floor hotel doors and rapping upon them in a merciless wake-up call. He was rather enjoying himself in this role, until, upon no response, he enters Tsuchiura and Etou's joint room. There, his disbelieving eyes travel up, up, up to the trumpet boy now pinned to the ceiling like a space-man on some anti-grav trip.

"Hi~hara! Why'd ya have to go and mess with those fellas, on this of all mornings?!" Sensing their presence aflutter all about the halls, the older man blows air between his lips emphatically, as he recalls his own youth's past encounters with certain little winged men who had easily bruised sensibilities.

"I didn't mean anything I said before, really! Come on guys, let me down, please!"" A listless airborne Hihara Kazuki begins to whine. And Miyabi turns to his 'Ole Teach' with pleading eyes for her poor guy's plight.

"Damn, that's high! Hang tight. I'll get you down from there." Kanayan's responsible adult in the room/educator/father figure mode kicks in.

"Hey, Goomba! You out there somewhere, Paisano?" Hands on hips, Kanayan suddenly shouts out of nowhere to the empty air about him, brushing off his self-taught Italian language skills with a flurry of ethnic hand gestures. Soon thereafter, lavender sparkles reconstitute above his head in the form of a well-filled out, dark mustached pixie who was as proud to be as Italian as spaghetti, the Godfather and opera combined.

"Goomba?! Goomba! You-ah know that I-ah hate-ah that name you tried to give me, Kanazawa Hiroto! You know-ah?!" The voice was deep in a timbre belying his tiny little Fata form shimmering into existance at Kanayan's beckon. Though diminutive in size, the pale purple hued creature was anything but petite, as the fat Fata swings his pudgy angry fists at Kanayan as if he had a vendetta score to settle with the opera tenor.

"_Ciao, vecchio Amico_." (_Hello, old friend_.) Kanayan speaks in his smoothest Italiano tones, his accent quite exemplary from his everyday study of it on a professional opera star level, his smile suave and winsome from his fulfilling marriage to his enticing leading lady.

"It's been a while-ah, hasn't it, Paisano? How goes-ah your opera singing-ah?" The thickly accented slightly obese Fata inquires after the human he had been assigned to all those years ago. The young tenor named Kanazawa, fresh off the boat from Japan with stars named 'Caterina' in his eyes when he arrived in Italy all those years ago, had certainly matured since those days when beautiful songs of youthful days gone by were sung and Argento Luciani, the Fata , was center stage in the young tenor's life.

"_La vita e bella_." (_Life is beautiful_.) Kissing his forefingers to the air with that oh-so-Italian style, Kanayan answers with a secret smile, visions of his lady love dancing in his head.

But back to the pressing subject at hand.

"You think you can do something for my boy up there? He had a slight run in with a Russian friend of yours—

"Kanayan begins to explain quite civilly while Miyabi and Hihara exchange shocked looks of their beloved teacher's infinite connections and undreamt abilities in the world beyond SeisoAcademy.

"Oro Dmitri?! The high and-ah mighty golden _Cidrule (Cucumber) _is no friend of Luciani's! You know-ah!"

Kanayan smugly folds his arms as he nods sympathetically, seeming to know exactly how to push the anger management buttons on this particular hot-blooded Italiano fata fatty.

"_Sento il tuo dolore_." (_I feel your pain_.) Kanayan has to keep his cool, though inside he was laughing it up how the Fata just called the other a "cucumber" as his most foul curse.

"I remember the old days, when this would be child's play for you to unravel." Kanayan offhandedly dangles the dare before the fat fairy, who puffs out his chest even further to its full expansion at the challenge.

"_Leri, Oggi._ Hmph!" (_Yesterday, today, hmph_!)_ Si Vedra, Amico! _(_Watch this, old friend_!)" Argento Luciani scoffs before opening his mouth widely to unleash his magic powers.

Hihara bites his lip as Miyabi closes her eyes with a quick prayer.

_"La La, La, La La, La, La La—LAAAA!_!" After filling his little lungs, such a sweetly powerful voice in perfect tenor pitch and skill emanates from the wide, yet still considerably small fairy. His magic dust action floats up to where Hihara was exhaustively clinging to his chandelier lifeline, and masterfully takes hold of the poor young man until each well sung note transports the trumpet player back down to terra firma again.

"_Bravo, Regazzo! Luciani!_" (_Good Boy! Luciani_!) Kanayan calls, clapping his hands together successfully.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Hihara kisses both ground and fat Fata's floating feet as Miyabi dashes over to where her guy was a writhing puddle of gratitude.

"Are you okay, Kazuki-san?!" She inquires worriedly, but only because she had not seen his facial expression yet.

"Never better! Thanks a bunch, Kanayan! Floating on the ceiling makes a guy sure hungry! Let's go get some buttered rolls!" Up again and on his feet in a flash, Hihara slings his happy arms over his head, giggling uncontrollably so Miyabi can't help but join in his contagious chuckles.

"_Il riso abbunda in bocca degli—Mamma Mia!_" (_Laughter is abundant in the mouths of-Oh My Goodness!)_ Luciani begins to ridicule Hihara and Miyabi when his big bulgy eyes affix upon the tall woman suddenly standing before him.

"Vat is so funny,_kleintjes_? (_little ones_) Is my handsome husband in here? I seem to have misplaced him..." Caterina Kanazawa asks the departing pair as she enters the room in search of her leading man's arm.

_"Una bella donna! Ciao,_ _Bambina!" _(_A beautiful woman! Hello, baby_!) The overweight operatic fata obviously had a roving eye for gorgeous blondes, and Caterina certainly fit the bill. All crude comments about Hihara and Miyabi are dashed from his wee little mind at her appearance in the doorway.

"Ciao? Hmm? Does that mean 'hello' or 'goodbye' in Italian, my darling? So many languages in our profession, I do get confused!" Caterina was one to roll with the punches, knowing when she was being flirted with, having seen her share of musical fairies of all shapes and sizes in the theater to be knocked off kilter by this portly little creature's sweet attempts.

"_Ti voglio bene_..._Bella_..." (_I love you...Beautiful_...) The soppy fairy was softly humming in melodic romantic tones.

"'Goodbye', in this instance. Decidedly." Raising an eyebrow at the smitten Fata, Kanayan pulls yet another rabbit from his magical hat trick by strategically placing a thumb on Luciani's unsuspecting bulging tummy and rubbing it in gentle circular motions. Within seconds, the fairy was sound asleep on the couch and snoring loudly in perfect vibrato.

"It never fails. Luciani always said that his 'sainted Mamma' did that to him when she lullaby-ed him to sleep. Figured it was a good way to get him off my back in the old days." Kanayan explains, his wife looking down at the snoozing creature pitiably.

"—And well away from chasing my women, too." He and his Fata always had the same tastes in that field.

"Wo_men_?" Caterina's eyes slit in mock jealousy as she purses her lips coyly.

"Correction—singular. My _Woman_." Kanazawa Hiroto flexes his male dominance by wrapping a possessive arm around the shoulders of _his_ one and only buxom blonde beauty.

"Oh Hiro! I love it when you talk like zat." She whispers in his ear in gratified response, caressing his chest with her long fingernailed hands.

"Later, my pet. With all these crazed Fata hanging around, we've got to get these kids on stage in one piece. Kira'll have a conniption fit if he got a whiff of this lot! Let's get to the opera house,_ pronto_."

Knowing how their fame might slow them down, Kanayan uses the only way to obscure his soprano beauty's long platinum tresses she was widely celebrated for, and pulls his trenchcoat over their heads as not to be recognized in the hotel lobby by the throngs of operatic fans awaiting the dual stars' Rigoletto performance tonight.

Caterina comfortably shielded on his arm, Kanayan chuckles at the thought of his dark kohai confronted with the Fata Onslaught everywhere and anywhere they passed on the way to the Vienna State Opera House.

And Kanayan's only seen the half of them yet, as they leave behind at least one fata at rest.

..._Dorme bene...sogna bene...salutare bene, Luciani, vecchio  
paisano._..

(..._Sleep well, dream well, fare thee well, Luciani, old friend_...)

* * *

On the surface of the moon, two solitary figures reach hands towards one another. The tall young man stands in the moon's shadow; the lovely young girl basks in the bright white moonlight where their hands can't touch no matter how hard the blue haired knight tried. His voice is silenced by the violent winds that were tossing them back and forth. He lifts his violin and begins to play—each stroke across the instrument's golden strings was able to cut across the divide of the moon's darkness and light, until a beautiful melody rings throughout the vastness of space.

And when the beautiful princess, with the striking red mane of hair blowing carelessly on the wind-tossed breeze, lifts her own instrument and plays the harmony in lovelorn rhythm, the entire sky responds. A glorious rainbow breaks through the darkness as the colorful refractions of light create a path that the knight and his princess both cross—racing straight into one another's embrace.

Within each other's arms, they realize the truest feelings either of them ever had. Lips touch lips as the knight finds his voice again, whispering in his love's red strands of hair a desperate 'I love you...' Words he's never been able to fully express properly, if not only through his violin's sound for her.

"Even when we've been parted, your invisible hands have never let me go." Holding his princess in his arms, the knight closes his eyes, breathing the name forever on his lips...

* * *

"Kahoko...!"

"You'll be seeing her soon, Tsukimori-kun! Good morning, sleepyhead." Ousaki Shinobu had just been deciding if he should awaken his roommate or let him indulge in some rare last winks of shut-eye. The boy had been so deep in REM sleep that the kind man had been weighing that over in his mind as he wondered silently what Tsukimori Len was dreaming about.

It had not taken much for him to guess, especially when the stoic face, even when sleeping, bends into a wistful smile-her name escaping his lips.

"Wh-what? Good morning, Ousaki-senpai." Tsukimori, embarrassed at being late to awaken, sits up with a start.

"Yes, indeed. I can see who you were fantasizing about..._'Kahoko_.' Ousaki chuckles, repeating her name in Tsukimori's husky voice to tease, baiting the young man's sleepy delirium while he busies himself with setting out clothing for Tsukimori, as he was wont to do.

Tsukimori blushes violently, as Ousaki hands the man his pile of clothes and a few towels.

"She's going to need your support up there today. Vienna's a much wider stage than she's ever stood upon, in all respects. Let's not keep Hino-san waiting." Ousaki advises his friend, though Tsukimori didn't need to be reminded of how much the girl of musical destiny relied on his own vast expertise, his soul performance, his abiding love...

Tsukimori exchanges a nod with Ousaki as he dashes into the shower and removes his clothes, readying to be the pillar of strength and  
support she needed for her greatest endeavor on the world stage. He had aided her in practice all week and cheered her on with the encouragement of his improving smile and bolstering love.

While in the shower, in his mind, he was still holding that beautiful princess in his arms, guiding her with the burning desire of his love for her to succeed. Her music had become his music—as one, perfectly in tune with each other's ideal sound...

._..Kahoko...I wish you all the melody of our love in this performance...Kahoko, I'll be with you all the way..._

Her name still on his lips as he showers and dresses, Len was pleased and content with the level of her performance. Yet he still prays for God's blessing to fall upon the entire ensemble, especially for his most adored musical princess.

Hino Kahoko's eyes meet his, fresh and ready to face the anxious day whose sunlight outside the window was greeting her warmly when Len arrives promptly at her hotel door.

He reaches out to collect her hand in his invitingly amidst golden hues of climbing light. Hino, now secured on her love's proud arm as they walk the streets of the cradle of music —Vienna— feels invincible enough to take on the world, even upon the most prestigious stage of them all—

And win.

* * *

*Cidrule! (pronounced shed-rool) is an Italian curse that means cucumber! ^_^ Humorous author's note FYI


	39. Chapter 39 - The Language of Love

**Chapter 39: "The Language of Love"  
**

Two by two, the Grand Hotel Wien's 6th floor rooms empty as performers and their dutiful entourage of teachers, senpai, and girlfriends eat a quick breakfast before making the early trek across the Rosengarten to their final destination, where all their accumulated hopes and musical dreams were to be made today.

The ViennaState Opera House.

As the auditorium slowly begins to fill, the group of Seiso students anxiously gather into its spacious backstage dressing room areas. Already waiting for them there, Kanayan was ready to greet 'his kids' with some final experienced words of advice.

"Okay, I know this concert may seem unlike any other you've performed. You're on the world's stage now. I'm sure you've heard that the crowds are going to be larger, the stage bigger, the critics scarier—" Kanazawa Hiroto knew personally the peaks and pitfalls when it came to standing upon a stage such as the Vienna State Opera House, before all of Europe, the land where classical music and opera flourished in yesteryears gone by. He wanted to prepare his beloved students with what little knowledge his experience had to offer.

"So, I want you to ignore every darn one of the things I just mentioned." The serious look crossing Kanayan's  
knit-browed face changes into that familiar joking smirk, he pinging Hino Kahoko's forehead above her wide-eyed frightened face 'til it softens into a nervous giggle.

"Nothing up there matters, not a single highbrow spectator, not one of those blessed critics, not one inch of that ominous stage so many Masters performed upon before you. Nothing matters but your love of the music you're playing today. Just put your whole hearts in it—and make me proud, like you always do." Kanayan smiles that paternal smile over the entire group as he pats Kaji's firm shoulder and Tsuchiura's strapping chest, as if they were his actual family. His famous soprano of a wife watches from the background as student after student go to her lavender love with a warm handshake or sweet hug in gratitude for their favorite teacher's reassuring presence in  
always backing them up.

_I can see why you have the love of your children, my Hiro._ Caterina Kanazawa thinks to herself with secret pride.

"Now, hurry into those changing rooms and get dressed, Kids! You've got a concert to perform before some 5000 expectant foreigners and we at least want you looking somewhat decent!" Kanayan smiles wickedly as he rushes the boys toward the men's dressing room.

"And don't be embarrassing our revered Director out there on that stage—he blushes easily." Kanayan teases his so far absent best friend as he slaps some slow butts into the changing room. He leaves the girls' welfare and matters of dress to his capable wife. Caterina happily acquiesces, for she longed to be acquainted with her  
husband's former students, whom she'd heard so much about.

* * *

"I always feel like a dip in this kind of monkey suit." Annoyed with his tight collar, loosening his tie for the hundredth time this morning, Tsuchiura complains. He was in quite a grumpy mood ever since his rude fairy awakening fiasco this morning. He had finally gotten rid of his new little plump Russian "_Comrade_" once Lili had unleashed his entire fairy family upon the unsuspecting Opera House. They had disappeared into corners thereof, and the bothered Seiso students almost wished the trying creatures would never come back out of their hiding holes again.

"I find it quite adequately comfortable." Tsukimori Len answers civilly, never knowing how he irked the brawnier man by his oh-so-perfect fit in not just a fancy suit. But after a moment's temper flare, with a sighed smirk, Tsuchiura feels that same old reminiscent rivalry with the pale blue violinist as when they were last together playing an exquisite performance before a Seiso audience.

"Easy for you to say, Tsukimori-kun! You're not the one going to be on stage in one today! I'm as nervous for you guys as I used to get before my own Concour performances!" Kindly Seiso OB, Hihara Kazuki, knew the feeling full well himself, sticking up for Tsuchiura as Hihara twaddles with his own bowtie. The easy slip-on elastic type he usually used was nixed by his refined roommate this morning which left Hihara struggling now with the real satin McCoy Yunoki loaned him.

"None of us are at Seiso anymore, gentlemen. This is the major league now." Yunoki Azuma comments seriously.

"Yeah, that's right." Tsuchiura Ryotaro is himself reminded, with more than a little unwanted regret, that Tsukimori Len's familiar soaring violin was not going to lead the ensemble today. A small frown creeps at the corners of Tsuchiura's mouth inexplicably as he remembers his eternal rival's perfect playing alongside his piano in numerous successful times gone by. In each of their mind's eye, the five of them were back at Seiso's concours, instruments in hand, ready to go on stage as a team.

"Remember those days, guys?" Ever the sentimentalist beneath that gleeful surface, Hihara Kazuki asks the other four men gathered in tuxedos around the men's dressing room with a tinge of sadness in his usually buoyant voice as he suddenly goes nostalgic.

"Good music, good memories were made then." Fully awake and lucid today as he speaks from his heart, Shimizu Keiichi adds the soulful deep sentence as Yunoki, just as he always had to do then in the past, straightens the younger teen's messy tie.

"Unforgettable friendships that will last a lifetime." Yunoki says meaningfully. For once in his life, this young man almost felt he understood what that word meant truly as he shares a grateful smile with Hihara and Shimizu, finishing fixing the boy's tie with bony but stable hands.

"Important memories of times spent with precious people." Tsukimori leaves his own reverie of his violin's sound forever linked in his heart with hers, to join the other boys—no, _men's_—conversation as, through his heartfelt words, all five see a certain redhead who brought them all together as friends.

"And this year, finally, all five of you will be Seiso graduates." Overhearing their sentimental conversation, Ousaki Shinobu enters the dressing room, he placing his hands on Shimizu's surprisingly un-slumped shoulders as Ousaki leads the group out into the backstage wing where Kaji Aoi and Etou Kiriya were already present.

"This is a celebration of all your achievements through your years at Seiso. Every one of you has earned your right to be here." Kira Akihiko and Kanazawa Hiroto finish their serious conversation and exchange a knowing nod, as if something had been decided between them without the student's knowledge. At least_ **most** _of the students. Kira gives his nephew a final raised eyebrow look, causing Etou to smirk back in silent reply.

"So where did you disappear off to early this morning, Etou-kun? You were gone before 7AM." Tsuchiura questions the smug boy, leaving off how the fairies from hell mistreated the piano player with no help to speak of from the fly-by-night teen who was supposed to be his roommate.

"I had something to do." The wiry thin violin genius shrugs off-handedly, the smirk on his face growing enigmatic.

But before Tsuchiura or any of the others could question Etou's terse response, Tsuzuki Mari knocks on their door and leads in a bounty of beauties, all dressed in each of their finest. After a few short coos and drools from either side, Kira Akihiko raises a silencing hand to speak.

"I realize that this is entirely untoward to present at this hour, just minutes prior to performance," Kira's eyes lace with Etou's assured positive nodding ones, puzzling everyone with the mystery.

"But Etou Kiriya has informed me, just this morning, that he is withdrawing his position as lead violinist from Seiso's ensemble." Speaking in dead monotones, the stern director shows no emotion as to the shocking news coming from his straight-lined lips.

Several gasps, shocked titters, and surprised looks pass between the players and the girls until all eyes land upon the confident face of the young man in question. All the others were shocked and surprised, save for one Shouji Megumi, for Etou had already discussed this move with her input especially. She looks on at him with a small smile, her breath trying to steady in her lungs, though Shouji inexplicably couldn't help the tears of pride forming in her eyes as he speaks.

"This is my decision entirely." Etou states, addressing the stunned crowd plainly, boldly.

"It has no reflection whatsoever on your ensemble, Ryotaro-senpai, Aoi-san, Keiichi-senpai." He begins to explain, meeting each member's eye as he says their names.

"Nor any fault with either of our violin's individual playing skill, Kahoko...san..." Etou strides over and takes Hino's confused trembling hands in his hot ones, intentionally gathering her shocked gaze in his with an uncharacteristically kind smile accompanying the added respectful address of her name.

"But this concert is Keiichi-senpai's and Shoko-senpai's and Megumi, yours to, along with everyone of the rest of Seiso's 2010 graduates' moment." Etou's elegant eyes travel from Shimizu to Fuyuumi to Shouji, then back to Hino.

"Not mine. Not yet." The 2nd year student bows to his seniors respectfully for once, lowering his eyes obsequiously.

"I want Keiichi-senpai's ideal sound to be heard today. I want the 'Violin Concerto' to be played in the way that your heart only plays when it's alongside the one who completes the other half of your musical soul." Etou Kiriya swallows his pride, his overconfidence, as he becomes a mature man this day in so many eyes—especially Kira's.

"Len-san, will you accept the part of lead violinist in this stage's  
MenCon's violin performance? It's your violin alone that Kahoko's longs to play for." Etou meets Tsukimori's surprised eyes as he places Kahoko's hand now in Len's.

"Etou-kun, I don't quite know what to say." Yet again, at every important moment, the awkward little boy in Tsukimori Len lacked the needed words , as Hino squeezes his hand in hers excitedly.

"Don't say anything. Just have Kahoko play like she does for you in practice, Len-san. It's what Vienna deserves to hear from Seiso." Etou brushes off Len with his more usual arrogance kicking in as he smirks.

"Thank you, Etou-kun." Tsukimori gives the maturing young man, whom he no longer considered a bratty teen, a soft smile. Hino Kahoko outdoes him one though, as she throws her arms for the first time around her fellow reddish haired violinist in complete gratitude. Etou's eyes pop out of his head as he uncomfortably shifts his tall long-legged body's cocky pose trapped within her embrace.

"You have no idea what this means to me, Etou-kun." As the tears in her eyes start to flow, Etou tries in vain to extract himself from the weepy girl's sappy hug until he has to physically push Hino Kahoko off into Tsukimori Len's capable hands.

"No prob. Just don't blow it out there, Kahoko." She smiles, despite his naughty swipe, as Etou loses the respected "-san" yet again. Kahoko has really warm feelings towards the brutally honest boy whose charm was undeniable at times such as these.

"Len-san," Kiriya pauses to speak "consider the favor returned." He says with a backwards thumb in the air as he turns to Tsukimori. Backing away from the happy couple, Etou was about to take his place in the rear of the backstage area beside Shouji and Fuyuumi when Kaji Aoi grabs hold of his arm and pulls him to the center with a serious expression before he grasps Etou's hand tightly and starts to shake it thoroughly.

"I've got to hand it to you, Etou-kun. You've got some guts." Kaji congratulates the young man for, in his mind, a heroic deed with a fervent handshake.

"I'll have my chance some day." With a smile, Etou shares a nod with his uncle across the room as Kira Akihiko looks on from afar, allowing the other students this little pride in Kiriya's selfless act.

_You would truly be proud of your boy, Miya._

Kira thinks of what courage of character it had to take the 16-year-old to forfeit his moment of glory to star before the music cultural center of the Western world on Vienna's eminent stage. But his reflective thoughts of pride are interrupted by a certain horrifying sound.

"For your act of selfless devotion to music, Etou Kiriya, you WILL have your chance to shine before the world's stage, not someday—but TODAY! You know?!" Exuberantly, Lili and many of his fairy friends conspire for a moment or two before fairy dust settles from countless pixies above over the entire stage and audience of Vienna State Opera House's Intercom speaker system. A magic veil of fairy dust appears overhead to sprinkle directly upon Etou Kiriya's unsuspecting shoulders.

"He-hey-HEY!" Invisible fingers mystically transform the boy's wine colored parka jacket and jeans not meant to be on the Vienna stage this morning into the tall teen's formal concert attire he was  
originally supposed to don today.

"Creamy and dreamy! Whew-whew, lookin' good, Etou-boy!" Amou Nami was never at a loss for well-choice words nor well-timed camera flashes.

Etou, at first dumbfounded by the rumored, but personally unseen, famous 'Fata magic', colors distinctly at the roving reporter's crasslyapproving words. Lili then zaps Etou's very own violin into his newly introduced to fairy dust, yet nonplussed capable hands and tingling digits.

But cool Kiriya Etou soon takes it in his long stride, a quick stroke tuning his 'magic' violin to perfection with flare, if just for Shouji's bedazzled eyes upon the stylish cream long tails suit and vest the young man was now wearing, as the fairy dust swirls and then settles around them both..

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen. Before the main event of Mendelssohn's  
'Violin Concerto' is performed by Seiso Academy's 2010 graduating ensemble, we'd first like to present an introduction by Seiso's future graduate—promising star violinist, Etou Kiriya and his talented graduating accompanist, Shouji Megumi, as they perform Erik Satie's 'Je Te Veux'!"

"What do you think you are doing, Fata!?" Kira nearly throttles Lili to death at this unorthodox change in his planned schedule. The fairy manages to pull out of the Director's vicious grasp in time.

Though he did not doubt Etou Kiriya's skill for a second, Kira still feared losing face before all of Vienna with the silly Fata running rampantly in charge, scheming who knows what to terrorize him further.

"BRRT!" Lili razzes the frustrated man below from the safety of the backstage rafters, Kira shaking a useless fist at the creature of his torment. Gathering his wits, Kira sighs.

"It seems we have no choice in the matter. Go on, Kiriya." Kira affords his astonished nephew a small smile. Etou was just starting to get a hold of this whole 'Fata' thing, but not yet entirely.

_Play your mother's song for __Vienna__._ Kira Akihiko's eyes seemed to say.

Etou puts his uncle's confidence to the test, as he takes Shouji's fear stricken, shaking cold hand in his hot one and brushes his lips across it once again.

"_Je Te Veux_, Princess." He says the French phrase with mature deep eyes linked with hers. Shouji regains her faltering breath in the intensity of his gaze, leaving all fear and apprehension behind to walk at her dashing prince's side into the magical world of music where his eyes and lips both translated as—"_I want you..."_

Upon the stage, just the two of them begin to play in perfect harmony the classical jaunty romantic melody as it was written, for newly blossoming love intertwined fresh beauty into its gentle lilting strains.

Accompanied by the shy, quiet girl, Etou Kiriya's excellent violin playing stuns the audience with its on inspiring power and intensity. But not only was his technique breathtaking—so was his inspired romantic heart behind it...

As 'Je Te Veux's' serenading notes ring throughout the Opera House, Vienna's impressed audience is given her first taste of the 16-year-old violin genius. When the sweet score is finished, they are applauded wildly, as, unstressed by standing upon the musical world's stage all his young life, confident Etou Kiriya turns to motion for their adoring acclaim to be granted his accompanist as well.

Never imagining this all could happen to an undeserving faulted girl as she still blamed herself to be for past wrongs, Shouji Megumi feels her wavering lungs about to collapse within her fragile body until the boy with the gorgeous eyes collects her from the piano bench by his warm hand and Etou leads the pair in a shared bow before the gracious audience.

* * *

"Wow! That was great, Etou-kun!" Gregarious Hihara Kazuki gives a successful violinist a big brotherly pat on the back.

"Some pretty good playing there, Shouji." Tsuchiura smiles with great respect in his non-effusive way, from one piano player to another, to the girl's grinning joy.

"Pretty good?! That was absolutely brilliant! Better then anything I could do at such quick notice!" Mori Manami, deft at piano and people skills both, gives Shouji Megumi a big hug at the same time she gives Tsuchiura at teasing shake of the head.

"You two rocked!" Kaji Aoi could sure use a girl siren like Mori Manami's cordial influence to polish him if he was planning to delve into the political arena in the future, as he leads the other backstage friends in nodding thumbs-up agreement of his boisterous accolades.

"You're quite the star ingénues. They're still applauding out there." His more refined cousin, Yunoki, comments from where he stood near the curtain, able to see the raving crowd from the corner where he was leaning.

In an embarrassed response to all the praise for a moment, Etou looks away with an unusual shyness that proved his innocent years still, as his cute mouth curls to the side sweetly.

"She would be proud." Kira Akihiko merely states as Etou passes him backstage. But the boy understood his uncle's meaning well enough. His eyes smile as he catches for the first time a glimpse of the magical Fata dust lighting sparks of musical blessings over their performance. Shouji Megumi stands beside him, her pure face awash in the glittering shine, as she too gazes upwards in wonder and awe. Etou gives the breathless girl a pleased wink and the security of his thin, yet strong arm to lean against and hang onto.

"Thanks, Megumi." He whispers in her ear, warmly brushing his bangs to hers with genuine affection written on his stunning features.

And even as their applause begins to fade, glimmering fireworks and thumping beats of a different sort were setting off in Shouji's heart as she leans for strength to his...

* * *

"All right!" Kanayan smacks his anxious hands together eagerly then rubs them together.

"This is it, kids! Let's give Seiso a good name in the musical world! Strut your stuff out there!" Kanayan's low voice whips up a pep talk as he taps each of the five backs before sending them out onto the stage.

_This sure brings back memories..._

Tsuchiura Ryotaro, Kaji Aoi, Shimizu Keiichi, Hino Kahoko, and now Tsukimori Len, together as an ensemble again—

_Just like the good old days. _

A sentimental Kanayan proudly smiles as they all take their places together on the welcoming Viennese stage, thanks to Etou and Shouji's first act warm up. The string quartet's instrument bows and fingers readied at the piano, all raise in perfect entrance stroke tandem.

His eyes meet hers with the first notes starting nod, as Tsukimori Len's lead violin takes the command with his precise technique, combined with that tender gentleness of tone color Hino Kahoko taught him. His majestic golden violin speaks the emotion of his heart to his violin partner as if she were his only audience alone on the stage.

Hino Kahoko glows back at him in response as she senses her soul too take flight alongside her love's perfect soaring notes taken wing.

Mendelssohn would himself, no doubt, be quite pleased to hear the beautiful harmony of the five instrument quintet overwhelming its listeners with their flawless glory. In an impeccable unity of sound, the ensemble teleports the entire audience, even the toughest, most jaded of critics, to a resplendent world of magnificent emotions of light and beauty. Sounds of unequaled delight carry on double violin, viola, cello, and piano strings befitting the regal halls of the Vienna State Opera House, as thousands of fairy wings flutter throughout the auditorium's rafters. Scattered throughout the building, multicolored, multicultural Fata float in the air unseen, alighted on balconies, kicking their legs and swinging their arms around in rhythmic time to the wondrous beasts of music, as all find tranquility in the one true language that music spoke universally—_The Language of Love_...

With their own immense individual talents on hand, Tsuchiura, Shimizu, and Kaji all follow the soaring notes of their two lead communing violinists, as all sense the pure beauty they were fortunate enough to be a part of, tied together by the golden thread of a single girl's love for the glorious music entwined her heart with another's for all eternity in the legendary Violin Romance, as their flawless rendition of the Violin Concerto rises to untold heights in the endless sky of Len and Kahoko's _Infinite Love_...

Before Vienna and the rest of the world to hear, the powerful building crescendo finally falls to a divinely dramatically spectacular close, the ensemble glowing with self pride as they wait before a stunned audience for their reaction. You could hear a pin drop for a few seconds in entranced silence of the lucidly impressive display of emotive sound that showcased the fundamentals of true music through five instruments expressing perfectly as one.

That moment of awe passed, the audience in the Vienna State Opera House rises to their feet and give a standing ovation, impressed by not just this 'Seiso Academy's' youth and skill, but more for that never quite before heard performance filled with such obvious love between the players intermingled with an intangible magical quality that combined to produce pure musical majesty.

"BRAVO!BRAVO!" Amidst the illustrious audience's passionate cheers, stepping out of his shell, Kira Akihiko himself unconsciously joins the calls of praise, as if someone precious was there right beside him speaking through him as the beautiful music transported him back to another happy time in his life when he and his beloved sister Miya played that very moving piece together, side-by-side.

"Bravo!" Tsuzuki Mari's sweet soprano voice sings him back to the reality of today, Kira finding himself more than content to awaken from his reverie if it meant he'd find Mari there beside him.

The Seiso Academy ensemble onstage take their well-deserved bows before the enthralled crowds and file from the center stage to the wings, the five successful players leaving the stage to much acclaim of the Viennese audience still ringing in their ears.

"Not a waste of time anymore, Kahoko." The moment the redheaded violinist meets his waiting eyes, Etou murmurs the phrase proudly with a smirk to the glowing girl as he amends the first words he spoke to her nearly some two years ago through her practice room window.

With a nod, Tsukimori leaves her in Etou's care for a moment, as he goes to gather the pink bouquet of roses he had brought for Kahoko with a special violin mini ornament attached to the name card, tied with a red bow. Contentedly, Len places the bouquet in the redhead's hands.

She giggles in joyous happiness up at him, as countless congratulations, come both their way from the backstage gang, though it's hard for either blissful lover to hear anyone's voice but one another's despite the din of "Good job!" and "You were wonderful!'"

No longer seeing anything beyond the beautiful pink bouquet and this sweet little violin pendant attached, Hino Kahoko opens the hand written card and reads the words aloud:

'_Kahoko, you play love on every string of my heart.'_

_"_Oh, Len! I love you!" she whispers, so overwhelmed and thrilled by this day, by him, she was in tears, as Girl Power friends and Lili appear, they all sniffling beside our heroine as Tsukimori shyly smiles with a husky, velvety throated:

"I love you too, _Kahoko_."

This day's musical stage expressed the destined Violin Romance's _Language of Love_ yet again...


	40. Chapter 40 - A Fairytale Dream

**Chapter 40: A Fairytale Dream **

"Hold on, hold on, everyone! Don't just sit back on your laurels yet!" Kanayan's smooth tenor voice teases the triumphant group of musicians as they troop backstage. "Kira tells me this concert isn't over yet." His gaze falls upon each stupefied performer, one by one, with serious solemnity.

"Is it, Shimizu?"

The former teacher turns a raised eyebrow at the normally sleepy boy standing in between Kaji and Tsuchiura. But tonight, Shimizu's entire face was wide awake and glowing with cheeks as pink as a cherubim's, as he sways up to a quizzical Fuyuumi Shoko, and bows in front of her. Everyone who wasn't already 'in' on the plan, giggles at the shy pair with intrigued eyes.

"Play with Keiichi, Shoko." Shimizu smiles that same exact smile he had given her just last night. Fuyuumi's startled mind slowly, at first drawing a blank, comes to a terrifying realization as her eyes glance in horror back to the stage behind her.

"Sh-sh-shi-shimizu-kun! N-n-n-noooo..." Fuyuumi was indeed a shrinking violet. Her feet were firmly planted on the ground as Shimizu begins to haul her out. Miyabi Yunoki helpfully offers Fuyuumi her clarinet she had been instructed to secret from the unwitting girl's room as Hihara pats her flatly on the head.

"Come on, girl! You can do this!" Mori Manami encourages with a fisted hand and a bright smile as many of the female members help Shimizu push and drag the girl like a frightened kitten sentenced to a dreaded bath.

"Shimizu-kun says you play it so beautifully, so perfectly—and that's a great compliment coming from Mr. Perfectionist Angel-boy, you know!" Mizue adds with kind, yet mocking eyes.

"You know it by heart!" Ayano whispers fervently, then biting her own lip right after she does, ashamed eyes darting to see if her Azuma was listening.

And he was. Yunoki awards Ayano with a coy look as his fingers find a single lily and tuck it behind her ear in her dark hair.

"You _do_ have spirit tonight. Just like this flower." He cajoles, brushing the bent stemmed, though yet vibrant lily's pointed white petals to her damask cheek with the back of his elegant hand.

But Ousaki Shinobu does the most convincing for Fuyuumi, as he leans down and soothes the scared girl with his mellow reassurances. "Yes, you have spirit, too! And you are that flower, just waiting to blossom, Fuyuumi-san. Don't shrink away from the sunlight—bask in its glow. Show the world your full beauty in bloom. You'll see—you'll be all the better for it and be proud you did it, someday." Ousaki whispers, kneeling at her feet at eye level and speaking directly to the poor girl's heart as he squeezes her hands.

"But—b—but..." Hearing his words, Fuyuumi still stubbornly shakes her head in terror. Her eyes fill with tears, threatening to overflow when her earth angel turns around to descend down and touch her cheek.

"I write my music from my heart, from my dreams sent down from Heaven to me—gentle and warm. You're in my dreams there, too, Shoko. My dreams, my heart, my music-all would be incomplete without you. Give me your song, Shoko. Please answer the sound of my love." Shimizu's soft, sweet voice was calm and strong as he expresses his feelings to her, clearly for the first time, as his cello's bow easily glides across its strings with a deep, heartfelt note of utter gentleness.

Fuyuumi's own heart trembles. Her cold insides grow warmer with every cello stroke, every soft smile and belief in her was obvious in his resplendent eyes.

_The eyes of an angel._

Fuyuumi Shoko witnesses a golden glow all about Shimizu Keiichi.

_And with my angel's hand in mine, how could I ever lose my way? You'll never walk alone...'_

Fuyuumi hears Shimizu's sweet words from last night envelop her frightened soul and give it a pair of its own wings to fly alongside his love...

_His love..._

Fuyuumi felt she could do just about anything now that she was assured of her beautiful angel's heart, as well as his already promised soul, to watch over her always, even into eternity...

* * *

Before the well approving audience, as the enthusiastic applause for Seiso's 'Violin Concerto' begins to wind down, famed violinist in his own right, Ousaki Shinobu, takes this opportunity to step out as MC. For, if one thing Ousaki was always sure of, it was his oratorical words, even to vast crowds, where the friendly man felt right at home.

"Thank you all for allowing SeisoAcademy to travel all the way from Yokohama, Japan's shores to take you along on their journey. A journey, we believe, at our beloved Seiso," Ousaki's bespectacled eyes glance from face to face of the students gathered behind him, as he shares nods and smiles with his accomplished friends, "that tells a moving story only the beauty of music could truly describe." Ousaki's well-spoken and heartfelt words look up to receive a nod from Director Kira in the balcony left above and a round of clapping from the generous opera house patrons.

"Our story began today with Satie's 'Je Te Veux'—a sentimental tale of first love's awakening discovery." At Ousaki's gaze towards them in the backstage wings, Etou Kiriya squeezes Shouji Megumi's hands with gratitude, for the small, fragile figure had found it within herself to stand beside him on the awesome Vienna stage, in all its grandeur, and play so well an accompaniment for him.

"Je te veux, Megu..." He whispers to her, not even recoiling as every eye backstage shoots a look to the young pair who only had eyes for one another.

"Next, we opened the heart of Seiso's touching narrative as Mendelssohn's 'Violin Concerto's' sweeping sounds turn the pages of the Academy's finest graduates—past, present and future—in all their promising full bloom of life." Ousaki pauses his talk, as his personable storytelling skills are put to good use. Each member of the audience seemed to be hanging on his every word.

He turns his head to the side, where Hihara-kun, Yunoki-kun, and Kanazawa-sensei, with an arm hooked around both their necks, were looking on at him. Beside them, Tsuchiura-kun was smirking a quiet scoff, with a suppressed giggling Kaji-kun next to him, at how Tsukimori and Hino, watching from the wings, had managed to cross one another's bows in symbolism of their violins' playing, and now were embraced in another kiss silently stolen.

Ousaki smiles at the students until his eyes fix upon the quiet blonde boy who was contentedly swaying between them, in his own happy world, with Fuyuumi Shoko at his side.

"Our final chapter is one written by this year's SeisoAcademy top graduate himself—our Valedictorian, Shimizu Keiichi— who has the promise of being one of the great composers of our time. His inspired composition takes us all to the journey's end. We at Seiso feel we have been blessed to have met one another and hope our music reflects those never ending important friendships we've nurtured over the years together."

Ousaki Shinobu hears a familiar camera shutter click. His glance reaches down with a special smile for the golden haired reporter who had a huge role as his 'co-conspirator' in making this day possible for everyone. Amou Nami winks back up at him.

"Please listen to this year's graduates as we drift upon composer and cellist, Shimizu Keiichi's, and clarinetist, Fuyuumi Shoko's 'Heaven Sent Breeze'."

Ousaki finishes with a flourish towards where Fuyuumi is escorted onto the stage by Shimizu—his inspiration at his side, his music in his heart. After their own introductory bow, Shimizu and Fuyuumi quietly take their places on their seats with their singular instruments. Demure Fuyuumi was strengthened by Shimizu's fearless, soft smile and additionally bolstered by Ousaki-senpai's encouraging words, as he nods with a smile and leaves the stage for the small pair of graduating seniors to claim it as their own.

* * *

Swallowing hard and facing her fears with Shimizu Keiichi's clear blue eyes as her guide, Fuyuumi Shoko's clarinet begins the sweetly moving piece in soft quiet tones. Shimizu's cello seems to ask her questions that only through the power of the music of love could fully understand. Their mingled instruments' sounds, both playful and tender, wander into the depths of each soul seated in the Vienna Opera House's audience as well.

When Fuyuumi's buoyant clarinet notes answer his cello's call, the  
entire auditorium alights with their sweet love's duet as it rises. Every heart which ever knew love's first moment of warmth and excitement could empathize with the flowing, joyful yet graceful, sentimental yet lighthearted mechanization that the human heart traveled day by day when it was on the tracks of life with the right one.

The quick paced clarinet and cello's deep notes were likened to the beats of a heart. Quiet and soft, then pounding, as it climbs upward anew, to find love and light in an uncertain world, if one's partner on life's road plays a generous harmony to the other's receiving melody...

By the time the short piece finished, Fuyuumi was absolutely certain Seiso's angel, Shimizu Keiichi, was the harmony to her life's melody. Eyes open wide, her horizons broadened, as the audience explodes in applause in gratitude for the tender, heartfelt music.

She smiles with tears in her eyes, as she basks in the clarity of his beautiful eyes. Shimizu stands proudly with a short bow to the audience and then he faces her again. Helping her to her feet from her seat, he bows deeply before her and the more than entertained crowd was touched by the innocent sweetness of this new, youthful composer and his timid, ingenue clarinetist, as they give a standing ovation to the two small beings and the music they made together on the vast stage.

Shimizu and Fuyuumi had made their mark upon the musical world today. She had never once in her life imagined she could ever amount to anything much, with her quiet, introverted little ways—but now the entire world was a stage and if she could stand tall upon it, like she did today, anything was possible—with angelic Shimizu Keiichi watching over her at her side.

* * *

"You've truly blossomed into a beautiful young lady." Ousaki was holding a spray of fuschia flowers for her at the side curtain. Posing for a snapshot for the eager camera enthusiast, Amou Nami, finally sees the Fata's sparkles, her eyes and camera focus opening wide.

"That was wonderful, Shimizu Keiichi, Fuyuumi Shoko! You too, Tsuchiura Ryotaro, Kaji Aoi, Etou Kiriya, Shouji Megumi, Tsukimori Len, HINO KAHOKO! Take a bow! You've given the music of your hearts! Every one of you deserves a hundred thousand million standing ovations, you know! Thank you! It's my dream come true! Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!" Lili bursts into tears as indeed hundreds, if not thousands, of untold glowing glitters of sparkles called 'Fata' clap along as well as they gather over the empty stage—and every multilingual one calling the Seiso students to return for an encore bow before the impressed audience.

Lili looks up towards Heaven with tears in his eyes to his old friend and benefactor, as their golden dream of bringing music to the world was being fulfilled in a big way this day.

"The dream of ours to spread music throughout the world has come to pass, Kira Yukai! Your grandson and his wonderful students have finally made our wish possible, here in Vienna, again, you know! I'm so happy for us both, you know!" Lili bursts into unmitigated tears of pure joy as the Fata sprinkles both music notes and fairy dust from his wings over each of Seiso's best, whose friendships forged of music brought his special friend, Hino Kahoko, to this music blessed moment wrapped in glorious measures, glistening in gold.


	41. Chapter 41 - Afterglow

**Chapter 41: **"**Afterglow"**

After a dazzling afternoon spent basking in success, our conquering Seiso heroes take in a shower of compliments on their collective performances' excellence, as a flood of eager reporters demand photos and interviews.

Though Tsuchiura was aloof and Shimizu was 'a-snooze,' it was left up to a courteous Kaji, a curt Tsukimori, and a confident Etou to grace the cameras minus the pair, as Hino, Shouji and Fuyuumi make excuses for the other two AWOL stars of today's stage.

Renowned European music experts were making offers and showing their interest in the talented young musicians that Seiso has proudly displayed before them and all Vienna.

Rescuing the students from the gaggle of reporters, Kanayan and his beautiful bride insist that the brilliant, well-received group were invited to attend their 'Rigoletto' opera that very evening. Since the opera was to be held at the same venue—the legendary Vienna State Opera House — none of the exhilarated students could refuse their beloved teacher's invite to the highly rated opera Kanazawa Hiroto himself was starring in.

"It's extremely well done and very true to Verdi's original script intentions." Shimizu imparts, sharing a complacent smile with Fuyuumi, for he was at total peace after performing his heart's composition for all to hear.

The boy genius knew the opera and this particular rendition of it well, because he and Fuyuumi had already seen it just yesterday, but wouldn't mind doing so again. Repetition was nothing to a musical perfectionist's world.

"Of course it is! This is Vienna! Magic happens here!" Looking around her in awe, Hino Kahoko sighs blissfully as she gazes at the Renaissance artwork up on the ceiling to the gold leafed furniture legs down to the floor. She hugs to her chest the pretty pink spray of roses tied in lavender ribbons in a floral bouquet her love had bestowed upon her backstage.

Hino's eyes glow up at Tsukimori Len's as she sits at the long, ornate table at his side, in the opulent refresher room that Kira had booked for the group to lunch in and rest in between performances, once they had decided to stay on for the opera later that evening.

"Magic happens wherever you are, Kahoko." Tsukimori answers her in a soft, breathy whisper, looking into her eyes intensely as they both finger the cute violin pendant on the card he'd written amidst the rose petals, until their trembling digits touch. Lost in each other's eyes, the two share an indulgent smile when Len plucks one vibrant fuchsia pink rose blossom from her bountiful bouquet

"May I?" At her serenely idyllic nod, Len ties the bloom lovingly to her wrist with the silk ribbon as his own crafted corsage.

Kahoko nearly swoons at both romantic act and gorgeous golden eyed smile filled with his pride and love for her as his graceful fingers complete the lavender bow then rest upon his lady's adoring cheek.

"Break it up, you two. Lunch is served." Right in between Tsukimori and Hino, Tsuchiura almost giddily plops a very full sack of steaming hot bratwurst to go with some very fresh baked rolls that Kaji and Hihara had collected from a nearby bakery, leaving the rugged piano player to deal with the singing Vienna sausage and bratwurst vendor in the park outside the opera house's nearby Ringstrasse avenue.

The three hungry young men had eagerly volunteered to obtain a quick snack to tide the group over until the 'fancy-with-all-the-trimmings dinner' promised by the pleased as punch Director.  
Although most of the excited yet bashful girls, conscious of their figures in their fancy gowns, claimed to be not the least bit peckish, that didn't cut the cheese for nine young and virile 'growing boys.'

"Gee, thanks, Tsuchiura-kun." Hino's nervous giggles grow as she watches her Len lift his left eyebrow in annoyance.

"Yes, indeed." Tsukimori says coldly, pushing the plastic handle of the bag away from him as he meets Tsuchiura's teasing glance. Mizue slaps the green haired man's arm as punishment.

"You know what they say! When in Austria, service with a smile!" Kaji Aoi had a way of mangling words as he blithely mixes his metaphors. Oblivious to any confrontation rivalry going on, as usual, the politician's son comes dashing up, eager knife at the ready as he deftly slices the crusty rolls and delivers them on cardboard plates passed around the plush room, leaving a speedy trail of crumbs in his happily humming wake, amidst the golden pillars and thick carpeted floors.

"Careful there, big boy." Mori comes to the rescue of an especially crusty character of a bun teetering from the overfilled tray of baked bread that Kaji Aoi was offering around like a 'dumbwaiter.'

"You're the best, Mori-san!" Kaji smiles as big as the heart he was now wearing on his sleeve for her.

"And don't you forget it." A heavy-lidded Mori smoothly responds, breaking off a tip of the baguette in her fingers and stuffing it into her golden beau's wide grinning mouth. Her efforts were rewarded by his murmurs of its savory taste on his enjoying tongue.

"I won't." He flirts right back, chewing the bread leisurely, the two in their own little world, as eight other couples watch with interested eyes their new soap opera stars.

"Ahem...the decor is exquisite and the company exemplary-" His gaze was upon a blushing Ayano, as Yunoki Azuma speaks up. His voice once again attained that sense of sophistication, yet without the affected air of insincerity it usually traveled with.

"But the service...?" He raises a teasing brow at this ditzy cousin. Hihara and Miyabi squeeze hands with each other behind his back at how well best friend and brother was recovering under Ayano-chan's tender care. The calm, altogether genuine smile on Yunoki's face was more than anyone dared to hope for, just days ago.

"Oh! Ooops! Sorry, Yunoki-san! I'll be right ther—!" Kaji, though, was far from that degree of composure altogether. He, in his haste of dashing across the room, trips over the edge of an ornate chair leg. His panicked face threatened to kiss plush Oriental rug carpeting, along with the entire tray of melt-in-your-mouth-watering baked goods.

"Watch it, Aoi-san!" Kiriya Etou flexes his sinewy young muscles as he jumps up to steady the flying older boy with one thin arm. His other hand expertly grasps the heavy tray, overflowing with bread, without spilling a single one—for Etou's timing was always impeccable.

"Good catch, Etou-kun!" Ousaki just enters the room, alongside the head-bent-over busy-notepad-writing reporter, Amou Nami, to witness the wine haired teen averting disaster yet again.

"That boy's got SOME reflexes!" Eyes and ears perking up, Amou's attention snaps to, as she licks her lips in anticipation of a juicy new story. Many of the other girls exchange nods in agreement with her assessment of the boy-turned-man before their eyes and all of Vienna's today. Mizue even lets out a low she-wolf whistle as she gives a blushing Shouji Megumi a major thumbs up for her conquest of the gorgeous young stud star violinist, as Etou deftly places the tray on the secure table without missing a rhythmic beat.

* * *

"Do we expect less of our resident Seiso hero? Going for glory yet again, Etou?" A low voice from a a tall boy with dark navy blue hair comments dryly, as he and another newcomer with light brown hair had followed Ousaki Shinobu into the opera house's ornate respite room.

"Sho-chan!" A chorus of shrill, feminine voices (plus Hihara Kazuki's) cry out at the irreverent youth's sudden appearance.

"Sounds like you're none too unpopular yourself, Shoma...senpai." Etou throws over his shoulder, in mocking retort to the smug Seiso graduate just entering the scene.

"This girl of mine's been working overtime on cultivating my shining, friendly persona. Besides, I figured you seriously depressing lot could use an influx of new blood." Fudou Shoma smirks through the smart-alack remark, showing his true colors every now and then, despite incessant polishing by his kind-hearted, and flirtatiously favored elder brother at his side, Yosuke.

"Girl of yours?!" Hino Kahoko steps forward to greet the unexpected visitors and wades through her childhood friend's usual out front of biting quips. The pleasure of seeing him and his more sedate elder sibling was amplified by the secretive glow behind Shoma's undeniably furtively suggestive gaze.

A look passes between the two newcomers, as if the brothers were holding behind their backs another—

"SURPRISE!" Shoma and Yosuke both step aside to their left and right to reveal, hiding behind their dual tall forms...

"Mio! Nao!" Kahoko shouts out her two dearest friends' names in shock, with a clap of joy as the three bosom friends embrace in a tender group hug.

"Now, why didn't** I **get that warm a welcome?" Shoma's 'jealous' deep voice whines and teases over the trio of heads.

Kobayashi Nao merely had to give a glance to the unpleasant navy blue haired boy's brother for the brown-haired man to react immediately in his soft, winning way.

"Perhaps it is because you neglected to give your own salutations to everyone in proper greeting, Shoma." The classy, highbrow educator in Fudou Yosuke calmly berates his opinionated younger sibling, as the flirtatious gentleman in him bestows first upon Hino Kahoko's trembling hand, then subsequently every female in the room's hand, a greeting kiss.

"_Enchante, mademoiselle_`." The Paris trained 23-year-old delights each recipient of his suave attentions with both French term and come-hither eyes.

The remaining crowd of musicians give a respectful bow to the Seiso teacher—half-curious, and the other half-riled up at classy Fudou Yosuke's 'wolf-in-the-lamb's-fold' action to their respective dates.

"Right, sure, what's up, guys?" The more, lighthearted, ne'er-a-care of the Fudou brothers, shows laughing eyes at his socially graceful big brother, who always had all the right twp brothers couldn't be more different if they tried, as Shoma simply gives the group an affable enough backhanded wave. The guys mostly return it, with cautious nods or soft 'hellos.'

"Did you see the concert? When did you arrive? How did you get here?" The questions spill from Kahoko's lips like uncontrollable raindrops, as excited tears of joy were threatening to fall.

"Yes. This morning around 11 AM. By Transcontinental Airlines. Does that answer all your questions, Kaho?" Nao ticks off her answers playfully on her yet unpainted short nails adorning still tomboyish fingers.

She then gives her former teacher/tutor/dorm-master, somewhat love interest somewhere in between, a sideways glance as he returns from greeting the other ladies in the room properly. She was used to his amorous trifling enough by now, but that didn't mean she enjoyed  
suffering them.

Taking a deep breath for stability, Nao ruffles the redheaded bangs of Kahoko until they were on-par with the college student's own messy crop of charcoal hair.

"Everything." Kahoko smiles brightly. Nao always knew just when a good tease would be of use to ground an over-emotional friend such as this on her tumultuous big day in the world's spotlight.

"You were wonderful, Kaho-chan! I would've been so nervous being in front of so many people! But you looked so professional and pretty up there on that stage!" Takatou Mio drools in her baby tones, hugging her friend's arm with all the expressions of joy and fear and pride crossing her cute face and tiny body stature. Little Mio, for one, was not much altered by time as the others.

"I still can't believe you're here!" After taking a step back to survey her gal pals, Kahoko hugs them yet again, not realizing how much she missed the pair of them until now.

"We wouldn't have missed this for the world! What kind of best friends would we be, not to be here pulling for you at your biggest concert?" Now, Nao had grown so tall in the past 2 years that Kahoko had not paid much attention to, looking rather imposing as she puts her hands on her hips, cocking her head down at Kaho with a smirk at the unimaginable thought.

"Sucky ones, Sarge." Supplying his opinion vocally once again, Shoma takes this opportunity to plop a splatting hand on each of the three buddies' heads. Nao elbows the stubborn boy away, disdainfully. Though two years junior to him, she always felt a sense that Fudou Shoma was so much more immature than, say, his oh-so-adult elder brother. She discovered only recently that she had a thing for classy, sophisticated men, rather than Mio's preference for the brutally honest, teasingly loudmouthed flippant type. Of course, she wasn't naming any names.

"Hmph!" The tall girl gives Yosuke's annoying younger brother a crooked look, but Shoma doesn't seem to notice. He never did.

"Not too bad a job out there for Seiso, gang, from the applause volume. Guess the audience of Vienna still seems hip to that old-fashioned kind of music of yours." Shoma's mouth always had a sharp opinion to spout amidst his compliments. Tsukimori Len raises an eyebrow yet again at the noisy, big-mouthed senpai even as he graciously offers his own seat at the table beside Kahoko to Mio. Tsuchiura follows his lead (after Mizue forcibly pushes the big unconcerned oaf from his seat with her own hip, scooting over to make room beside Kahoko on the other side for Nao) and the two men unhappily end up leading Shoma and Yosuke to empty places at the end of the long table, nearer the opera house's refresher room's  
ornate mirror.

"Whew! This antiquated old joint could sure use a tuning to the 21st century! I wonder how my band would sound with these ancient acoustics..." Shoma curiously glances around, his errant thoughts always straying to his struggling rock band, composed mainly of former Seiso regular students who stuck together and formed a unit after graduation of 'real' musicians, i.e. bass guitarist, electric guitarist, drummer and saxophonist.

"This 'antiquated old joint' has housed many legendary performers and has stood the test of time in musical history for hundreds of years." Tsukimori couldn't believe his ears as Shoma wordlessly plays air guitar wildly, catching Mio's giggling wave as he shows off his  
invisible talent with a wink at her. It was obvious to see why she'd fall for the navy blue boy's outward charms.

"Well, your stuff's fine, I guess, but...I think other genres of music should have their chance to make their own history on Vienna's famous stage, too, Tsukimori. That's all." Shoma never did take to Tsukimori Len's uppity nature. Not that the two ever conversed much in the short time between when they met and when Len left for the 'Old World.'

Tsukimori considers the older man's words for a few moments before responding. "You are entitled to your opinion, Fudou-senpai. I myself have learned that the true value of music is the interpretation of one's heart, even more than the precision of its playing." The dignified teen answers soulfully and actually pleasantly enough, surprising Tsuchiura who had been silently listening to the unargued argument on the touchy subject of music's present-day place in the world.

"Yeah, but—" Shoma begins to say, when a large hand rests on his stubborn shoulder.

"You'd better leave it at that, Fudou-senpai." Tsuchiura smirks at how companionable born-for-exacting-music Tsukimori Len was trying to be of late.

_I guess that girl's had her influence about music on even his stiff heart, too._

"So..." Shoma begrudgingly concedes, as Tsukimori's attention reaches down and across the table to where Kahoko, Nao and Mio were laughing gleefully like long-lost sisters reunited, though Kahoko's eyes meet Tsukimori's longing gaze from time to time.

"You gonna give in and join Dysnomia when we get back? I still haven't forgiven you for not telling me you tickled the ivories before." Already knowing the answer as he turns his keen eyes back upon the green-haired man, Shoma tugs down even further the annoying necktie that his cutie 'Pata2,' (Mio's _pitter-patter_ new nickname he had given her), had persisted to bug him with those big soulful eyes until he wore the disliked 'strangler' to this concert.

"Yeah, sure, keep on dreaming, Senpai." Reacting in similar tie-loosening fashion, Tsuchiura chuckles at the running joke 'grudge' the former students shared of their final years at Seiso, when Shoma first got together his 'regular student' band, and at the time still 'regular' student Tsuchiura Ryotaro omitted admitting that he could play the keyboard for them, even way back when.

Even when the two were on the same floor at the Linden Hall dorm that Director Kira reopened to Seiso student boarders, Tsuchiura never came around to the idea, much to the navy haired boy's dismay.

"Ohh, Shoma's good at that. He's always dreaming." Poking gentle fun at his younger brother, Yosuke wanders back over to them, after a cordial exchange of words with fellow Seiso graduate near his age, Ousaki Shinobu, and being pleasantly grilled by Amou Nami about the Fudou brothers' and Mio and Nao's last minute surprise trip to Vienna. The current Seiso literature and fine arts teacher gave the  
insistent reporter all the pertinent information of how they, though tough-nosed Amou had to nearly beat the truth out of this suave and polite well-educated man, _he_ had booked and paid for the foursome's flight to Austria, to make it on time for our Seiso entourage's grand performance today, just to cheer everyone on.

Of course, kind Yosuke left out the real reason he had dished out both time and money for this whirlwind journey. But the ace reporter in Amou could see it as plain as the nose on the face of the former  
student teacher, now full time educator, that he was moved to set the plan into action for the sake of a pair of dark grey eyes in need. Every now and then, a glance said everything of how Kobayashi Nao  
appreciated the gentle tenderhearted teacher of her final high school years, who also served as Linden Hall dorm's pleasant head master. He had always kept her interest in mind and she had secretly kept his in her smitten heart ever since.

Yosuke had proved to be a fine tutor for the pair of blossoming young ladies, when the two were attending the affiliated Seiso college he'd graduated, but Nao's deeply profound eyes had a lot to teach him, as well.

"It's so wonderful to all be together again! Sitting here with you all brings back the happy times we shared at Seiso. Music really does have the power to bring people who love one another together, doesn't it?" Kaho was in tears of joy as she speaks with all her heart to the gathered crowd of friends in the room. At her side again, just when she needed him, Tsukimori's comforting arm finds its way about his Kahoko's trembling shoulders, the rest of the gang nods at her nostalgic sentiment with smiles.

"Hear, hear, Kahoko-chan! _And the night shall be filled with music_..._for Music_ _is the universal language of mankind_." Yosuke's gentle lilting voice drifts off into lofty phrases of romantic poetry.

"And may I take this auspicious opportunity to personally thank all of you musicians for that exquisite concert." Fudou Yosuke had quietly crossed the room to stand behind the girl. Placing a brotherly hand on her shoulder, he raises his glass of mineral water as if in a toast to each of those who stood on stage earlier.

"Especially each of you ladies, Kahoko-chan, Shoko-chan and Megumi-chan. Thank you for allowing us to step into your idyllic world of romance and beauty alongside music's colorful rainbows. Please accept this small token of my esteem, from your devoted admirer." And with that flourishing, flowery speech that most of the 'Girl Power' females were quite mesmerized by the poetic delivery thereof, Fudou Yosuke lifts open the prettily decorated box just delivered that he'd accepted at the respite room's door moments ago, to reveal a specialized cake that he had pre-ordered created just for this occasion to present to them.

Shapes of music notes and clef symbols, and an ample sprinkling of golden fairy dust, sweetly peppers the frothy confection with artistically designed delicate and edible gold-embossing.

"Oh! How exquisite! You truly do have the soul of a poet beating within you, Fudou-san!" Mizue openly drools as she gazes up to the tall svelte man standing directly behind her chair, hanging on his every lyrical word—for she was an avid devotee of classical literary works herself, and empathically saw the teacher as a modern-day version of Longfellow, whom he was quoting, a dashing romantic figure of times gone by.

Ryo sees her seeing this, too, even from across the room, and grunts sourly.

Yosuke, to much cooing gratitude, divides slices of the extraordinary confection with a gentlemanly bowed head in reverence—first to Hino, Fuyuumi and Shouji—then to each feminine thumping heart awaiting his attentions at the long table.

"'Yosuke,' Mizue-chan, 'Yosuke,' s_il vous plait_." Passing cake into her hands, the flirtatious man flashes a rakish smile that wows several of the females, nearly causing them to swoon at his easy use of the language of romance that French commanded.

Kobayashi Nao suppresses a grumble herself as her amorous seating partner finally alights opposite her at the table, after making his oh-so-alluring rounds with every giggling girl in the room.

_Funny, he doesn't have that effect on me at all. _

The grounded, self-possessed young woman in Nao prided herself in being above such 'twiddle-twaddle.'

_So why do I think I like him?_ Her prosaic mouth twitches.

"Is the cake not to your liking, my dear?" Yosuke's syrupy voice innocently interrupts her internal warring over their present relationship.

"Oh, I didn't even try it yet." Nao covers her inattention by quickly scooping up the dainty fork he provided, alongside the fancy saucer in her big-boned hands.

_Surprise, surprise. This man always goes all out for lavish, expensive, high-class things..._

Nao's none-so-elegant fingers nearly blunder in her attempt to retrieve the piece of cake from the dish with the inane, nonsensical utensil.

When she finally succeeds in getting the dessert to her mouth, Nao swallows it, almost whole, feeling heavy-lidded eyes upon her all the while. There was something unnerving in the way that he looked at her lately.

"Well...?" He asks with a hopeful smile. His tempting focus, as before on every other female in the room, had accumulated into just one—her.

"It's...good. Sweet, almost too sweet." Nao answers, bluntly honest. Her resolve was a bit shaken in his soppy gaze, so she fretfully stabs the strange fork into another bite of cake. But its trip to her mouth is halted, his warm hand suddenly arresting her wrist in mid-air.

"May I sample myself, Mademoiselle?" He says in devastating tones just above a whisper, bringing her forked hand closer to his own mouth.

At times such as these, Fudou Yosuke had a flagrant disregard for the unspoken societal proprieties that he normally held in high esteem.

Nao was uncertain if she should blush, flinch or laugh. But the color rises to her embarrassed cheeks, and reddened her neck as a result. Her eyes dart about ashamedly, to see if anyone was watching. But that rare desperate look on her features was indeed gratifying to Yosuke's roving eye, hungry for more than just this morsel of frosting.

Her eyes sink back to his heavy-lidded ones, as Yosuke licks his lips effectively.

"Indeed, I have **never** tasted anything so sweet." He whispers in sultry tones as his languid eyes entice her inscrutably. In the heat of the moment, Nao could imagine she enjoyed her debonair beau's obvious romantic intentions. But reality always coolly clawed its way back into her senses.

Catching her breath, Nao reflexively yanks her arm away.

"Oh, do _par`don_ my behavior. The romance of Vienna has obviously uninhibited my sensibilities." He apologizes.

"Hah! As if you needed an excuse." Nao scoffs, unable to rectify her swirling emotions, wondering if this vacation that Shoma and Mio had insisted upon, was such a good idea after all. She leaves her seat without meeting his eyes again, in a vain attempt at mingling, purposefully turning her attention to others in the room.

"My bro goin' all French on you, Sergeant?" A low, rather class-less voice interjects, as Nao pauses for a drink near the opposite end of the room.

She didn't know if the sympathetic tone outweighed the ridiculous moniker that Yosuke's annoying little brother continually dubbed her with. But Mio's happily munching face cropping up at the table beside him made Shoma's remark tolerable at least, so Nao lets it slide.

"Yummy! Yummy! Mio loves cake!" Mio keeps a-munching as she gurgles between bites of the sugary treat. "Especially cake with pretty gold sprinkles and cutie musical pictures!" Mio had an exuberance for life. And life, plus cake, plus sparkly sprinkles was near bliss for her.

Fudou Shoma's mocking smirk at Nao curves fully into a cocky smile at Mio. His entire world that revolved around his band's music and notoriety still found time to thoroughly enjoy the little girl's pure delight so easily quenched that was so adorable in his eyes. Mio fingers each golden half-note, clef symbol or 3/4 time marker, examining each piece with a gleeful giggle before devouring the expensive, genuine-gold-dusted treat with a pleased crunch.

"Ohhh...no more pretty sprinkles..." Mio's sunshiny smile turns into an upside-down frown cloud, as she spins the saucer of cake around and around in search of the eaten-up delights.

"Hey, they're not made of gold, but...will these do, Pata2?" Shoma says, his mind on something—or rather, someone else, other than his all-important band for once.

He had been gazing at her with a look as gooey as the frosting on her cake, from the vantage point of his lazy head down position leaning prone against his arm on the table, opposite the giddy sprite. Shoma was watching her every move, tickled pink and slightly blushing, as he produces from his jacket pocket a ribboned glass heart, filled with brightly colored chocolate candies that he had picked up from the same shop at which Yosuke had stopped to purchase the cake.

"For Mio...?" Mio immediately quits her pouty face in search of sweets, as Shoma carelessly slides the glass container with the candies across the table.

"If the sourpuss Sarge doesn't object." Sarcastically speaking, Shoma was savvy enough to know when he was being spied upon.

"Argh!" Nao rolls her eyes, having had quite her fill of 'Fudous' for the day and leaves the well-suited pair, as Shoma uses his ample muscle to wrestle open the jar, pouring candy M&Ms to cascade over the remainder of a gleeful Mio's piece of cake. His throat mimics electric guitar strumming sounds as each piece falls upon the frosting, Mio joining in with laughter filling the air.

* * *

"It really does feel like I'm in a magic spell." Kahoko sighs to Len, glancing around at all her gathered friends, as Mio waves to her from a few seats away, her happy mouth crunching full of candy.

"All due to you, Kahoko. None of this would be, had you not cast your love upon each of our hearts with your music." Tsukimori somehow finds inspired words within himself as he reaches down to stroke her blushing cheek. The redhead in raptures gazes up and behind, into his eyes from where she was seated at the long table.

Hino smiles a contented smile, then lifts her beloved violin to lean her head caressingly upon all the wondrous magic its golden strings released in her young life already.

"Thanks for the save before, Etou-kun!" In a small voice amidst all the new developments, and feeling thankfully quite forgotten, Kaji was still beet red in flustered embarrassment of his earlier clumsiness. He turns to Mori and sticks his tongue out with a comical shrug followed by his cutest smile.

"No prob." Comes Etou's stunningly confident smile, first at Kaji, and then pointedly directed at Shouji over his shoulder. The sight of which makes the delicate female nearly faint as she stands from the table to retrieve a drink at the opposing end. She did indeed seem to grow quite tipsy on her feet from the disconcertingly large mirror and the flickering lights that were reflecting off the overwhelming events of the day.

Seeing this, quick reflexed Etou Kiriya, yet again springs to action for the second time today. He grabs hold of her shoulders and cradles her dizzy form in his arms tenderly.

"Megumi?" He asks in worry, with a voice much softer than he's known to possess.

"Kiriya...?" Shouji smiles in a dreamy whisper as she gazes up at her hero, her breath taken and her thirst quite quenched by now.

"I've got you..." He whispers softly, his tone so gentle as he brushes her tousled bangs away from her eyes to her forehead.

"We can all clearly see that." Director Kira and Tsuzuki Mari enter the room just then. The dark older man gives his good-looking nephew in too close proximity to a certain young lady a cautious look.

"Right, uh...ehh...ummm...ahem..." The overconfident teen is reduced to a string of uncertain 'ehhs' and 'umms,' not quite knowing what to do with the awestruck girl in his arms. Amou Nami feels pity for the crass boy, though he often dissed her efforts for an interview, she had gained respect for him this day. Amou walks over to the embracing pair and takes the dreamy-eyed girl off a red-faced Etou's embarrassed, yet grateful hands.

_Let's see if that gratitude will last me long enough for an interview, -to-get-heroic-violinist..._

Amou's journalistic mind was always churning as she sits Shouji in a chair and begins to fan the girl with a paper plate. She offers the weak girl a glass of cold water and a tasty bite of bread.

"It's been a pretty overwhelming day for her-for all of us, really." Compassionate Ousaki understandingly says to Director Kira on the side.

After a reflective scan of the room and a moment of concerned thought in deep consternation, Kira exchanges a quick look with Mari, and nods. He turns on his heel and leaves without another word.

"What just happened to Director Kira?" Hino Kahoko asks, puzzled, and Fudou Shoma replies to her by shrugging his shoulders, plugged into his Ipod's earphones, already hearing more than his share of Etou Kiriya's accolades. He was always a bit envious of the tall lad's  
familial advantages at Seiso.

"Maybe the man's sick of his 'star' nephew's heroics today and needed some air." Shoma murmurs sourly under his breath. Nao and Yosuke give him another warning look, though Mio couldn't help herself from bursting into giggles yet again. Shoma rewards her loyalty with a grateful soft gentle 'punch' to her blushing cheek.

Gazing over the crowd, Tsuzuki Mari gives them all a knowing smile.

"Let's all eat our lunch and relax for a bit before 'Rigoletto.' Mari says, with a mysterious adult air. She meets many quizzical gazes with her calm smile until she finally alights upon Hino's questioning eyes.

"Be reassured. We can all rely upon the Director's good judgment for what's best."

No more is said on that subject as the four newcomers are updated on the group's past week adventures in Vienna's exciting events in bits and pieces, and Shouji recovers under the watchful eye of the other girls, who were all persuaded to eat their sausage-y lunch like good little soldiers, for their boys' pleasure, if not their own, as they all pleasantly chat and rest for a few hours on the laurels of their successful Vienna musical afterglow.

Hino Kahoko basks in another kind of glow as she finally can rest at ease, their music still in perfect harmony ringing in her ears strong and clear, as she leans adoringly back to her stoic Len's inviting chest.

Even as Kahoko pleasantly carries on conversations with others, in the depths of her mind, her thoughts of love belonged to him alone...


	42. Chapter 42 - A Walk in the Park

**Chapter 42: "A Walk in the Park"**

During the latter half of the luncheon, Ousaki Shinobu and his best friend from their college days, Fudou Yosuke, had wandered to the weighty subject of Vienna for all its artistic merits, resulting in experienced man-about-town Ousaki offering his tantalized friend a quick guided tour of the scenic neighborhood in the spare hour or two they had before the gang's date with 'Rigoletto" this evening.

"The Ringstrausse has been the historic center of Vienna since it was established to replace the medieval walls that once surrounded Austria's most famed city." Ousaki begins the walking tour with the usual informational spout which he believed his worldly intellectual senpai would appreciate.

However, the interest of the tawny haired young teacher was by far more inspired by the ardent light fervent in the eyes of the dark young woman whose arm he worked hard to capture ever since she was enticed to join the little touring party.

But Kobayashi Nao's attention on her former instructor was long gone astray once Ousaki had begun gushing the historical jargon she found more stimulating, much to Yosuke's dismay, as he surveys the way the curious girl and his Seiso kohai were carrying on. He always disliked being the third wheel, so to speak.

"It was on a Christmas Eve in 1857 that the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef established the Ringstrausse as an Imperial Boulevard to honor the glorious history of the Habsburg dynasty." Ousaki hadn't sat for two years on the No. 2 tram, where many a tour group imparted their city's knowledge as the travelers passed along the avenue, for nothing.

"That is just so interesting to me, Ousaki-san. Especially the fact that we know full well the construction of this inspired boulevard wasn't completed until the House of Habsburg was out of ruling power." Showing off a bit of her own historic study of the region, Nao seriously converses with the man in glasses, her excitement piqued, for history was her favorite school of thought.

"Yes, the Ringstrausse outlived the rule of that particular royal -" Ousaki is cut-off mid-sentence of the topic he and Nao were singlemindedly engrossed with as the group was strolling along.

"Outlived its welcome? You don't say?" The murmur beneath a bored by facts and figures and longing for a bit of romance, Fudou Yosuke's breath was almost so infinitesimal it could not be heard.

But 'almost' only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, despite the ignored man's coy undiminished smile all the while upon the chattering pair.

"Did you say something, Yosuke?" Ousaki asks earnestly, catching only half of the sarcastic comment and not getting its intonation at all - as per his usual innocent naivete.

Now, the fourth member if their little touring party was decidedly neither innocent nor naive, even on her worst days.

Amou Nami pauses in her camera snapping pastime at the scenery to supply the much needed clarification of escape for her funny Shinobunny.

"So! Why don't you show me that WWII monument—or better yet—that fancy fountain at the Parliament building you were going on and on about before, Shinobu-san?" Amou amply bats her eyes, doing her best to give the newly arrived GP (Girl Power) sister in Nao some space with her guy to hopefully fill in the last vestiges of this Viennese romance with memories of her own, too.

"Oh, yes, certainly, Nami-san! They're both very close by here, and very picturesque, I must say. The marble artwork marking the front entrance is truly amazing!" He begins gushing again so if Amou had a pin she could just pop his happy bubble, though she never would want to.

"It's just your sort of thing, Yosuke! I'm sure you'll want to join us! The artwork is—Ouch!" Oblivious Ousaki starts to invite his art enthusiast buddy to tag along until Amou's flinging camera pouch whacks him alongside his poor unsuspecting head.

"Ooh, I'm sooo sorry, Shinobunny! Did my bad camera baggie attack you?" Amou feigns regret in an award-winning hammy performance as she places an oopsy hand over her mocking mouth.

"Not at all." Ousaki kindly responds even as he rubs the side of his noggin and blinks his wobbly eyes with a sweet chuckle to the semi-guilty faced reporter, shaking it to make sure everything inside was still in working order.

"I don't think you should be walking after that nasty head bump, Shinobunny, so let's take that tram there! I'll give that poor lumpy on your head a massage on the ride." Amou pets Ousaki's slightly rising bump with a tender hand, then quickly grabs tight hold of his arm, giving it a hurried tug backward.

"I'm sure you two would prefer the scenic stroll down the avenue, but I must get a shot of that fountain before sunset! Gotta fly! Toodaloo!" Amou doesn't wait for a reply, rewarded only to look on Yosuke's face that was plain as plain how grateful he was for her quick witted ingenuity in granting him some private time with his raven maiden, even as he pities his poor best friend's resulting painful malady.

Amou flashes the smirking educator a conspiratorial thumbs up as she elbows a thoroughly confused Ousaki straight into the waiting tram's open door.

"Okay. You win. Where in this 'Innerstadt District' do you want to visit? One of those two famous art museums Ousaki-senpai was speaking of, I suppose?" Nao capitulates amicably. She was too savvy not to notice the concealed thumbs up of the reporter roving away nor the guy she was left with standing before her with a goofy grin on his polished mug.

"There is simply not enough time for me to immerse myself properly in the Masters' work the illustrious galleries here offer. C'est la vie." Yosuke cocks his head as he shrugs his shoulders. Then he fixes his gaze intently on Nao.

"I have a better idea of how to spend our time together than with Raphael, Rembrandt, or Michelangelo, anyway, mon amour." A rather seductive smile and an overzealous arm snakes around Nao's shoulders suggestively.

"I bet you do." She was already conjuring up a saucy retort and punishing self-defense blow when the overtly romantic creature surprises her with one blurted out unexpected word as if he suddenly recalled something important:

"SHOPPING!"

A baffled smirk crosses Nao's face, she cautiously accepting the older man's proffered arm and the pair follow the growing crowds gathering at the sector of the Ringstrausse named on the sign above their heads welcoming their eyes.

"Naschmarkt" or open air market...

* * *

"So tell me again why this Roman goddess has her statue all over Vienna." The photographer in her couldn't stop the investigator in her from indulging in such inane queries when she should be just using her valuable time focusing her lens on the breathtaking vista instead.

"Actually...she's Greek. It seems that the architectural designers intended this Parliament building to be modeled after the Acropolis. It says here that he building's interior walls and pillars were crafted of genuine Pavonazzo marble and its halls are lined with niches filled with various Grecian gods and goddesses' statues and artwork figures. I've walked by here before, but have never been inside and seen it firsthand myself. Care to go inside? Nami-san?" Lifting his peepers from the bridge of his nose intelligently, Ousaki turns from his studious reading of the inscriptions and entrance pamphlet material provided when the girl reporter is lax in response.

"Oh, Umm... Nah, I'm good here!" She deems to call back, feeling his longing gaze on her back more than physically hearing his soft spoken voice over the airy distance on the vast staircase between them.

"The view with the blue sky backdrop out here is way too picture perfect to pass up for basic indoor lighting. Besides, I've got more than my share of Greek gods to fill this whole roll of film with already." Amou Nami comments drolly to herself as she circulates her 'aibou' camera from where it was rapid fire clicking action at the goddess of wisdom.

There was Athena, appearing magnificently regal as she stands with her actual golden gilded staff, helmet, trims, and...

_What the heck was that gold creature adorning the statue's right hand?_

"Is that a...bird in Athena's right hand, Shinobunny?" Raising her eye form the camera's focus glass, Amou calls out idly to the unobserved man leaning on the concrete divider patiently awaiting her attention as he pleasantly chews on his popcorn from a bag he obtained on the tram's snack bar as the journalist was doggedly tending to her photo sport.

When he in turn does not reply after a few breezy moments, Amou turns around fully to the area she thought she left her escort beneath the giant bronze horse tamer statue on the right side of the stone ramp.

There, the girl watches the sweet man gently offer a tentative grey dove who landed on the ledge by him a piece of his popcorn snack.

Amou sprightly swivels her lens to pop a still of the tender scene of the kindhearted animal lover's infinite gentle generosity for one of God's small creatures of the air. But by the time Amou gets her camera in focus, it was another genre of scene entirely.

"Here you go, little one. Here's one for you too—whoa-whoa-oh!" Hold on! Whoa!" Ousaki Shinobu is soon spotted as an 'easy target' by all the birds aloft in the Vienna sky it seemed, as over a dozen large gray pigeons—not doves—converge, pecking and screeching upon the defenseless man in search of food in a way, just short of the Hitchcock thriller, that it proved rather hilarious...

Amou can't help but explode in laughter at the unbelievable scene as her shutter continues to click away furiously at the humorous scene of the man being bird-handled, each hungry customer demanding a piece of popcorn of their own as they all attack poor unsuspecting Ousaki. They land fearlessly on arm and head and hand and shoulder as if he were nothing more than a fruitful redwood or bespectacled scarecrow than an erect human being they generally shied away from...

"Whew! Did you see that, Nami-san? I have never known the birds here in Vienna to be so aggressive before. I wonder what has gotten into them today?" Finally extricating himself from the melee, Ousaki scratches his bird-trodden head as he walks over, lamenting his  
generously shared—even if by force—lost bag of popcorn. He turns the red and white striped bag upside down, only to retrieve a single unpopped kernel in the palm of his hungry skipped-lunch hand.

"Let's ask Athena. Maybe there's something in the water of her fountain here." Glancing at the opulent surroundings about them, Amou suppositions, trying to abate her own chuckles long enough to empathize with her handsome henna hunk's troubles.

"Maybe there is. Oh! Not again!" Ousaki, even as the two were speaking, hand left with that one last kernel of corn in his open palm, a pure white dove- a real one this time-swoops down to land in it and nibble upon the remaining morsel of a kernel there. The trusting dove looks up at him innocently and coos a sweet tune before fluttering away.

"Another little birdie told me she enjoys being in the hand of a god, too." Nami says with a wry smile as she saunters over, takes hold of Ousaki's still dumbfounded, outstretched hand, and nuzzles her cheek to it warmly.

Ousaki Shinobu involuntarily blushes as Athena's golden owl winks in the last rays of waning sunlight at the reunited lovebirds cooing below...

"Were you aware that Sigmund Freud himself strolled this Ringstrausse Boulevard daily for recreational purposes, my dear?" Yosuke asks as he and Nao walk the same Innerstadt winding road the famed psychologist traveled.

While Yosuke may have found that little tidbit of information of the utmost interest, Nao was far too grounded a realist to ever buy into the psychobabble founder very much.

"No doubt he wasn't just going around in circles to test his theories." Nao grumbles sardonically on his leading arm as she glances behind at the revolving scenery that seemed ever repeating.

"Hmm? Was that merely a Freudian slip? Or are you bored with my company already, my dear?" Yosuke's enthusiastic slowed step while enjoying the view, pauses to gaze at the young woman with a twisted lip and pouty expression on his arm.

"It's the 'my dear' that I'm beyond bored with, Sigmund. Psycho-analyze that, please." Nao mutters sourly with a pair of rolling eyes to the invisible intellectual whose name Yosuke invoked, her strolling partner stopping dead in his tracks and blinking back at her quizzically.

"Ignore me. Jet lag. Too much sun." Nao forces a smile as brightly as she could muster, blaming travel and the environment for her mood when the tall thin man's expression is reduced to that of a kicked puppy.

"I could never ignore you, mon petite. But do pardon me if I ever gave you that utterly erroneous impression." Yosuke turns on his undeniable charm and all its French well-groomed airs to full power, seizing both of her hands in his, pulling her close and biting his lip dramatically as eyes search eyes pleadingly.

"Down, boy. It's not that impression I've been having trouble with lately..." Close enough to be intoxicated by the luxurious elegance of his expensive Houbigant Paris Duc de Vervins aftershave, Nao whispers, stepping back purposely, though not letting go of one hand. Nao tugs him along with their new destination in view.

"Let me take the lead for a while, Fudou-sensei." She was becoming accustomed to their student/teacher roles at an end, but sometimes it was fun to tease him with it from time to time. Yosuke's eyebrows shoot up, intrigued, as she practically drags his willing willowy body past the famed Hofburg Theater and towards the Naschmart shopping district near the Museum quarter.

"I place myself in your capable hands entirely, my dear." As they pause at a busy intersection, he kisses the hand he still had possession of, while Nao eyes her slobbered over appendage dubiously at first.

Despite the vague nagging muse in the aft of her mind of how many other, more glamorous young ladies the amorous dapper man had dangled on his arm on avenues such as these in his artful past, Nao's tentative smile back up at Yosuke is rudely interrupted.

"Yuck. Is that such a good idea, Big Bro? I dunno if I'd want to be in your shoes with the Sarge running the show..."

The voice was far too familiar, and Nao wished she could just have one afternoon alone with—

Scratch that. I'd just rather not spend so much time with his loudmouth brat of a little brother.

"I happen to prefer my style of footwear, thank you very much, Shoma. Shall we go, mon cherie?" Yosuke tosses over his shoulder, seeming preoccupied as he suddenly takes to his heels and pulls Nao by the startled hand in the opposing direction.

"But wasn't it this open market you wanted to visit?" Nao asks as the bustling brightly colored section of the Ringstrausse is abandoned. She shrugs her head to Mio at Yosuke's inexplicable reversal, she hearing her best friend's dumb boyfriend's chortling growing fainter as they depart.

"There's somewhere else even better close by." Yosuke answers enigmatically, his attention on the circular path intent.

* * *

"Bye-bye, Nao-chan! I like your shoes, too, Yosuke-san! They're real spiffy!" Mio says, thinking literally of the sophisticated man's expensive dress shoes.

We won't say that Takatou Mio was an airhead, but not much else passed between her ears beyond that, fun and laughter, which she was happily taking part in now at this particular outing, eyes a-sparkling.

And Shoma Fudou loved her for it! No one could find sunshine even on rainy days like bubbly Mio could. No one could pull off that effervescent quality of easy innocent companionably like the little giddy sprite had. She always brought a smile to his face, even when he was frustrated with life's demands in general.

"Come on, Pata2! My stuffy brother wouldn't fit in here anyway. This place looks too much a riot!" The less sedate of the two Fudou siblings, rather too full of spirit, Shoma runs the gamut of food carts, jewelry stalls and knick-knack kiosks with a giggling Mio in tow so fast her little head was spinning.

The Naschmarkt was an open-air market along the Ringstrausse that not only catered to Vienna's tourists, but also the most avant garde citizens of the prestigious city who trolled it often as part of their heritage.

Now, Shoma wasn't in much for the artsy types, but he was determined to enjoy every darn second of this darn life! And the sky was the limit now that he had someone at his side who enjoyed life just as much.

"I'm so glad we came to cheer Kaho on! Mio's having so much fun in Vienna already, Sho-chan!" The girl exclaims on cue, her hands and arms full to the brim with a plethora of Austrian food offerings such as soft pretzels and cold sausages that the navy blue boy had boldly asked for a sample of each type at every food station they passed so that Mio could just be barely understood between chomps.

"You always will wherever you go, as long as I'm around." Shoma scruffs her adorably nibbling head with an almost tender, though more self-congratulating smirk.

As the pair enter the park at the end of the Naschmarkt part of the Ringstrausse, something catches Shoma's eye against the sunset. He dashes off, Mio continuing to chew as she polishes off her crusty bread Geselchtes—smoked bacon sandwich—chunk, quite  
dumbfounded as he rushes up to the single vendor left clearing up his wares in the park. She wonders what other snack sample her full tummy would be looking forward to.

But when Shoma returns, there was a strange reddish hue creeping up his neck that makes Mio curious.

Placing an embarrassed hand around said neck, he sheepishly holds up the object of his purchase for Mio to see. It was an ornate open box filled artistically with crepe papers behind a colorful spray of flora, showcasing a sprinkle of tiny pink roses and the sweetest little green apple adorning the center of the piece.

"Ooh! Sho-chan! Mio loves little pretty flowers! And this weeny teeny apple is soooo sweet!" Obviously tickled pink and pleased as punch at the romantic gesture of a vacation memento, Mio coos over the sentimental gift.

She brings her cute button nose to the gift box and sniffs in all of their fragrantly floral natural beauty as she giddily pokes at each adorable piece set in the box, decorated with all kinds of berries and greenery until her fingers pet the oh-so-cute mini apple green fruit to find that it was indeed real.

"No sweeter than the apple of my eye." Shoma doesn't even realize he voiced this cheesy thought aloud until Mio's head jerks up from ogling the gift to stare gape-mouthed and wide-eyed up at him.

Shoma's guilty hand then flies up to cover the back of the base of his deepening crimson neck again. He diverts his generally direct gaze downward due to his waxing philosophical words of poetic nonsense. But he laid attributed blame for them upon being heard to spout from his silly sentimental brother's mouth—not ever his cool sane one!

Nonetheless, it garners a totally unexpected response from Mio in appreciation as she stands on her tippy tippy toes and plants a big wet smooch upon his surprised cheek

"Oo-kay." The foolish grin adorning Fudou Shoma's face said it all in that one awed word.

Maybe Yosuke's advice concerning what makes women tick wasn't so old-fashioned, after all.


	43. Chapter 43 - Lucky in Love

**Chapter 43: "Lucky in Love"**

Now, if only Big Brother Fudou paid heed to his own advice enough for it to bring good luck to him too...

"Do you have any idea where we're heading, Sensei?" Nao asks in half jest of her former high school teacher, after the tall man leading her back around the circular boulevard appeared, well...lost.

_Why don't we simply stop to ask directions or get a map? Argh! Men can be so...so..._

"I believed...I did...Now, if the market was to the left, then..." As he spacily tries to realign his bearings, Yosuke's tan mane of well-coiffed hair blowing in the sun-setting breeze was somewhat...alluring...to say the least, the vision at least wiping all other gender frustrated epithets from her mind for the moment.

Nao pauses in their harried stride when he does, and stands there to watch the confused man glance about the Ringstrausse perimeter. He squints his eyes and shields them from the last orangy flickering rays as he scans the area with a perplexed expression on his features of having lost something.

"Yes! I remember now! It's just around this corner!" Yosuke cries out like a kid under the Christmas tree as he grasps Nao's hand tightly again and tugs her sharply around the bend to see—

Nothing at all, save a lone wienerschnitzel vendor and his cart just closing up shop for the night.

"What's special to see here? Just looks the same as one of the countless parks this area commands, it seems to me." Nao questions in all honesty, not noticing anything of significance (beyond the whistling sausage salesman) that had one iota of artistic merit to warrant her cultural gentleman this fanciful wild goose chase.

"Only another display of my incredible bad luck, my dear." Signaling a flourished digit to himself, Yosuke responds dejectedly, laying his sighing head in hands.

"And I was so sure this was the correct shortcut; though it all appears much altered by the changed season." He assesses his surroundings, as if in a profound recollection spent in sunnier days, until his shoulders slump, defeated.

"No. It appears I've led you down the garden path yet again, literally, so to speak. Please pardon the pointless pun." Yosuke glances around to the park's waning winter plant life, feeling almost as wilted as the browned dead grasses awaiting the freeze by now.

"Hey, don't always be so hard on yourself. You're a teacher, a chef, an artist—not a cartographer." With an uplifting smile, Nao peers sideways in the discouraged man's downhearted face.

"Did I ever tell you how I love the way a sunset lays golden streaks though your dusky hair?" In a complete turnabout of demeanor as he is bolstered by the ray of kindness in her sympathetic voice, Yosuke emerges with a pair of lowered eyelids back at her, the self-recrimination of moments before ebbing along with the sun's fleeting warmth.

The French acquired flirt in him can't stop his long artistic fingers from reaching out to caress and pet the flecks of golds and oranges dancing upon the girl's contrasting short-cropped tresses as they gleam.

"Ergh...Night's starting to fall. Time to get back to the others at the Opera house." Nao skittishly backs away and turns to retrace her steps in the direction of the Vienna Opera House's safety in numbers, intending to check up on how Kaho was faring after that incredible performance rather than blowing time out here lost in the cold, her best friend's well-being the whole reason for their coming to Austria, after all.

"No! Wait!"

Nao is unpleasantly shocked when Yosuke somewhat violently grabs her by the arm and spins her around roughly.

"Oh, _excuse moi_." Yosuke rapidly begs pardon for his unseemly untoward behavior upon receiving the young woman's angry violated glare from cool eyes distinctly glimpsed even in the early twilight.

"..Please...my dear. Humor me a few minutes more." Removing his scorned appendage from hers, he makes the request meekly with a begging look etched on his winsome features.

"It seems an eon ago since last I stepped foot here...But I wanted there to be a least one memory of our time in Vienna that brings a smile to your face and not a frown at my incompetence as a man." Yosuke Fudou's heart was a melted puddle in his droopy eyes.

Despite her better judgment, a touched Nao recovers from the uncomfortable confrontation with a stifled laugh and soft flustered sigh. It was Yosuke, after all, who had discovered, arranged, and subsequently paid for this sudden excursion to Vienna to see Kaho and the rest of the Seiso ensemble perform. And she had a sneaking feeling that he did it for her sake most of all. So maybe she should cut him a little extra slack for his thoughtfulness at least.

"So you've figured out which is the path down memory lane? Let's just make it a quick one, Sir." Nao relents under his sincere gaze, watching him with keen interest as the older man's face lights up at this second chance he now vowed not to allow his infamous bad luck to dally with any longer.

"_Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference_...Every road always leads me back to you, _Je t'aime." _Yosuke begins to recite verse from Robert Frost poetry, morphed into well accented French lyrical "I love you" of his own accord, as he purposely takes several long strides towards the opposite end of the park. Nao tentatively accepts the more usual, calm gentle hand thus proffered until the two were nearly departed from the Volksgarten park and were suddenly standing in the midst of the Burgring boulevard.

"At last, _mon chérie_! We have arrived." With an audible sigh of relief, Yosuke steps back from obscuring her view, to reveal on either side of the famed avenue, perhaps two of the most prestigious-not to mention breathtaking edifices, replete with marble and bronze statues galore, depicting honorable Austrian heroes in days of yore accompanied by mythological beings aloft noble steeds of eras gone by—in the wide scope of a pair of buildings crafted handsomely in the Neo-Renaissance style of architecture.

"Am I seeing double?" Nao had the urge to rub her eyes, but the twin view was too rewarding for the pragmatist in her to permit the foolhardy inflection that would shield the windowscapes of her two eyes.

On either side of the long and winding Burgring road stood erect twin cream stucco and stone three-spired gabled buildings the like of which Nao Kobayashi had never uncovered before in all her world studies.

"Where Fine Art meets Natural History, designed to compliment one another's contrasted existence perfectly since their conception." Yosuke waxes poet as he leads the pair to the middle of the boulevard for closer inspection.

"In the 19th century, the Austrian emperor commissioned these to be built close to his palace, all for his wife's personal gratification. I've always considered these national landmarks as soul mates, borne of their great love." Yosuke presents his romanticized view of the world's third largest Museum of Natural History and her illustrious 'mate', the renowned Kunthistorisches Museum of Fine Arts.

"**_You_** would make a greeting card poem out of a building." Nao scoffs, but the smile on her face was undeniably telling of the eager student of history's enthusiasm to step inside the hallowed halls and indulge her professional curiosity of the over 3,000,000 plus artifacts the famed NaturhistorischesMuseum had to offer. As a history major, Nao recognized this museum immediately from its impressive monument frontage and she was just itching to—

Without another word, Nao turns in the opposite direction her heart, mind and body longed to go. She instead grits her teeth, a look of tepid anticipation befalling her face resigned to one of the world's most formidable art collections she would have to endure through...

"And just where are you going, young lady?" Modulating his soft spoken voice to elucidate his practical educator's tone of authority, Yosuke cocks his head and places both hands on stylishly suited hips.

"To get us in and out of that Kunsthis—Kunsthisto or that—Fine Arts Museum of yours as quickly as possible. We **do **have a prior engagement at the Opera House later his evening. Or had that little detail slipped your cultural mind, _monsieur_?"

Despite the sardonic smile on her lips as she derides the young teacher's penchant for his beloved French linguistic skills, Nao was as tersely biting as she was stubborn. She continues to take several more paces in the art museum's direction.

"I assure you, _mademoiselle,_ I had absolutely no intention of attending the Kunthistorisches today, in lieu of our time constraints against our tardiness for the acclaimed 'Rigoletto' our own Kanazawa-sensei is purveyor of." Classy Yosuke innocently places a hand to his chest in incredulous denial.

"Glad to hear it. I'm sure one museum's as good as the next. You'll get another chance sometime, I'm sure." Nao was certainly relieved this avid art lover was forgoing a visit the famed Viennese Art museum so easily.

"Indeed. I agree with you entirely, my dear. After all, if you've seen one Venus de Willendorf ancient relic many thousands years old, you've seen them all." Yosuke coyly dangles that little tidbit of info out to see if she bites.

And Nao does. Hook, line and sinker.

"**The** Venus de Willendorf? One of the oldest, most famous artifacts in the known world?" Nao asks in awed incredulity.

"The very one." Yosuke answers with an obsequious smile down at her as she now willingly accepts his offered arm leading them through the Naturhistoriches museum's front entrance and directly towards that particular exhibit.

"It was discovered by the well respected archeologist Josef Szombathy in—I believe the year was 1908—at a small village in Melk's Wacchau region, not so far from this Vienna locality. The noted figurine has been dated to countless millennia before the birth of Christ, making it the most rare and precious item in the museum's entire collection." Showing off his own valedictorian prowess as a multi-dimensional scholar, coupled with his talent for verbally rendering information in a way the imagination was aroused, Yosuke concludes his speech wth a soft smile.

Spellbound by his words, Nao stares at the man in amazement of his retaining intellect as Yosuke rattles off the historical data as if he were an ancient researcher himself.

"The Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence—my college courses in France often took our art and design classes on excursions to many of those notable art museums scattered across the European continent."

"But it was here in Vienna—_ah, __Vienna__—_I discovered _my Venus._.." Yosuke's feathery voice trails sentimentally wispy at the end as he deftly maneuvers them to the ancient statuette's glass-cased exhibit.

With a wonder in her curious eyes that the man at her side found far more appealing than the 11cm tall oolitic limestone figure of a nude woman who was the symbol of fertility and life in all her headless, armless, footless glory that hardly instilled the classical depiction of 'Venus' the goddess of love and beauty, Nao nonetheless feels a certain excited rush of discovery flow through her intrigued veins.

"A French marquis in 1864 once dubbed her 'Venus impudique'—due to her overwhelming —ahem— lack of modesty. To me, she does by no means epitomize my ideal of the sweet mystery of a woman—" Yosuke's honest remarks curb themselves before landing in further trouble with the young female who was kneeling down to get a better view of the exhibit.

"I guess she has nothing to hide." Nao, though intending to keep a clinical scientific viewpoint, was finding it hard to be ogling the immodest figure in his presence. _Does this sort of thing attract him? Men...I should have figured..._

"The female creature **is** beautiful by nature..." She wasn't sure if he was quoting playwright or poet, but there was no mystery in how red her own feminine figure was tinting as he hovers over her, murmuring contently of the virtues of the female anatomy.

"I've visited her in my heady days of youth gone by many times. But I imagine this little lady's fascination for me personally—"

Nao's head spins and eyes shoot up to meet his honest soul-revealing ones.

"—was her legendary charm for bestowing good fortune upon anyone who gazes intently upon her...shall we say... well-rounded righteous propriety. _Par`don_ my waggish riposte." The sophisticated Parisian accented graduate bows his abashed head in somewhat flippant  
humility, that Nao can't help but indulge in the tall slender man's cuteness at times such as these.

"So why, if you've already _visited_ on numerous occasions, did you want to see it again now, instead of the Raphaels, Rembrandts and Michelangelos you adore just across the street?" Nao asks, knowing the art-lover well enough to be confused as to the reasoning behind the amateur painter's choice of museum venue.

"Since last we met, I've discovered something I am enamored with far more that I must thank her for finally granting me that good luck she promised all those years ago." Yosuke says, his searching hands finding something to do as he lifts his blue and brown striped ticket wallet up with an effervescent smile.

"And what would that be?" Nao questions noncommittally, as her own eyes thirsting for information drink in all the historic significance of the thrilling exhibits all around her. Full attention moved on, she half expects Yosuke to produce some sentimental trinket or memento from the striped wallet he was holding.

"**_You._**" In one melodically cherished word, Yosuke's blissful smile and silly laughing eyes spoke more volumes on the subject of love than a museum full of archeological antiquities ever could.

The Venus of Willendorf, though she had no eyes to see herself, opened Kobayashi Nao's widely to begin to consider making genteel Fudou Yosuke a man lucky in love at last.

* * *

As evening approaches, Nao and Yosuke arrive breathlessly in the nick of time from their museum foray, with Nao propping the weak, thin-blooded man up for the last leg of their brisk jog to the theater.

Tsuzuki Mari guides the students to reserved front row seats. The Director had fortunately reserved the entire first row, with enough seats for four more guests.

"I **SO** love opera..." Shoma says sarcastically, he too making it back in ample time with a giddy, tummy-fulfilled Mio, the pair plopping down with a thud as big brother Yosuke shushes him with a frown, and returns to his helpful job of seating everyone properly.

"I do wish I took up an instrument in my youth rather than dabbling in my box of watercolors. _C'est la vie_." The part-time painter laments, Fudou Yosuke gazing, with a touch of regret, at the orchestra tuning their classical instruments some feet below their first row seating, once his breath returns.

"Perhaps it isn't too late. That French horn does look intriguing, does it not,_ mon cher_e? Its complex design is artwork in itself! Or perhaps, the harp in its soothing dulcet tone is more suited for a short of breath weakling like me, being so very delicate and—" As intangible as the notes rising in the air, Yosuke is caught up in the ambiance of the moment again as he alights beside Nao, irresolute eyes curious upon those talented musicians in the orchestra pit and their intricate contrivances before them.

"Don't you have enough hobbies already? Silly man." Cutting him off mid-dreamy sigh, Nao chuckles at her lofty minded, indecisive man of all seasons, pulling him down to his seat and smacking his arm lightly, determined to curb her jack-of-all-trades before he ventured to take a new fancy to every single instrument in the orchestra tuning nearby.

"Just a thought." Yosuke shrugs his shoulders with a soft smile, though still seriously eying dreamily the orchestra's ornate harp with a golden female sculpture adorning its pillar column as her gifted owner cascades preliminary notes. The harpist's gentle chords  
reverberate upon the strings of Fudou Yosuke's soul as he imagines his own lithe fingers artistically stroking the inspiring concert instrument himself, until the classy, genteel man catches Ousaki Shinobu's jovial cat-who-ate-the-canary look in the opposing direction.

Once all students were secured in their correct seats, with a nod, Tsuzuki Mari leaves in charge the two men who were giving each other teasing high signs over their female former college mate's flustered head. Teacher Fudou and best friend OB Ousaki raise eyebrows with a shared knowing look at an unnerved Mari Tsuzuki before she departs for the private balcony depicted on her personal ticket that Kira had especially assigned to her.

* * *

By the time the normally sedate woman had found her way to the Opera House's balcony, Kira Akihiko was waiting there for her amidst the hushed romantic darkness.

"Director?" Mari whispers, as her eyes adjust to the private box's dim interior lighting, or lack thereof. "This is rather nice." She whispers, feeling subdued and awed all at once by the legendary Opera House's opulent finery. The private balcony box gave her quite a view overlooking the vast audience below. The students seemed like just small ants, however, until Kira hands her a pair of opera glasses.

"Yes, rather." Kira smiles, feeling more awed by her than the famed opera house he'd visited many times before, though never quite feeling like this anywhere, except in Tsuzuki Mari's presence, for all his world traveling.

"Were you able to sort it all out, Director?" Mari breaks the tense darkness to ask the silent Seiso Director.

"I did." Kira states succinctly, then clears this throat. He seemed to want to avoid the subject that Mari was trying to untangle. But his reticence aroused her curiosity no end. He lifts his own opera glasses to his eyes, as if interested thoroughly in the still closed curtain and murmuring audience below.

But the curtain nor audience were not what he would see in the foggy glasses, for as they clear, a cascade of fairy dust accompanies Lili's big face and even bigger mouth, magnified, times ten, to haunt Kira's nightmares for years.

"'**I**,' Kira Akihiko!? _'**I**,_' you know?! What's all this "**I**" business, Kira Akihiko?!" Lili flits from the magnifying glass end of the opera spectacles to poke at a smirking Kira's chest. Tsuzuki Mari, at first surprised, suppresses a giggle instead. "Don't let this man fool you, Tsuzuki Mari! I, Argento Lili, arranged it all, you know! I, Argento Lili, the greatest of all Argento Fata in the whole, entire, wide world, did it! Although my fellow Fata brothers and sisters have scattered to the far corners of the earth to spread the message of the goodness of music, through my own...vast knowledge and... personal brilliance and—" Lili's egotistical rant is halted by Kira's forefinger clamping over the blustery fairy's little mouth.

Lili was about to bite and spit nickels simultaneously, when the flaring music from the orchestra pit resonates throughout the entire theatre.

With it, Tsuzuki Mari watches in wonder how the red hot anger of the Fata is immediately quenched and calmed by the glorious sound of tone color ringing from the orchestra below. Kira, too, intuitively senses Lili's mood swing as he lets the Fata's mouth go as the curtain begins to rise, along with Lili's spirits.

For whenever beautiful music played, Argento Lili would become entranced in its splendor. Lili flutters to a perch on the edge of the balcony and swings his legs and wings in rhythm with Verdi's sweeping intro music as the opera commences.

Kira inexplicably finds his own hand resting upon Mari's when Kanazawa-senpai's first revived tenor strains fall upon his proud ears. For his best friend's triumph over affliction was a triumph of Kira Akihiko's own. In his compassionate quest to help his senpai and friend find his lost voice again, Kira Akihiko had found his lost soul in the noble process.

Tsuzuki Mari smiles at the rediscovered soul whose kind beauty could never be lost again, in her own eyes, now filled with love at his closed eye face, absorbed in the music of Kanazawa Hiroto's and his soprano, Caterina's duet '_E Il Sol Dell Ainon_'_—_'Love is the Sunshine of My Soul.'

It was both fitting for both Mari and Kira, for the first time in their lives, truly. Both could feel that same sunshine, even in the dark recesses of the Vienna Opera House's private balcony box, as Lili hums in the afterglow of their newly blossoming love...


	44. Chapter 44 - Girls' Night In

**Chapter 44: "Girl's Night In"**

After 'Rigoletto's' final encore curtain call falls, Kira and Mari bring the Seiso students backstage to the dressing rooms where the gaggle of them are cooed and fawned over by Kanazawa-sensei's lovely soprano wife. Caterina excitedly explains the joys of the stage, of acting, of singing, of performing before an audience of thousands-or even just one. She finishes her enthusiastic tale of the romance of music and opera with that reflective eye kept upon her husband all evening. At Kira's invite, and Caterina's delight to connect with his students at last, Kanayan decides to accompany the troupe of musicians to dinner at the French restaurant inside the Grand Hotel Wien, called 'Le Ciel.'

The concert was an unquestionable success, so Director Kira was a little more lenient than usual. He allowed the students this triumphant night for their own devices after dinner together at the fancy restaurant on the hotel's sixth floor.

Taking immediately to the tall, long blonde haired Dutch woman, our 'Girl Power' group soon plots for a sleepover visit with her at the Grand Hotel. Intrigued by her vivacious love of life and ample stories of foreign travels, none were tired enough to be claimed by sleep far into the night, for today's excitement was a lot to wind down from.

The girls swarm about Caterina as Mari generously offers her spacious executive suite for the female slumber party. She was secretly interested in attending it herself, for the serious quiet girl turned strict taciturn woman never did attend a girls' night in her youth, with her driven schedule for musical excellence always in the foreground.

Romantic stories, girlish laughter, and sweet dreams were the order of the night, not to mention a friendly pillow fight or two that Amou Nami and her pilfered notepad indignantly started. For Amou's gossipy notes concerning several of the young men's exposés made for a great read to many a palpitating heart of a young girl in love.

Especially the romantic hijinks of a certain starry pair bonded together by their violins' golden cord of love. And when a knock comes to the door, just when the gals were getting to making s'mores, the only one surprised to hear Tsukimori Len asking Tsuzuki-san if he could speak to Hino Kahoko alone for a few minutes—is Hino Kahoko.

"Well...Tsukimori-kun..." Mari couldn't help but sympathize with the plaintive, desperate look in the pale blue haired young man's eye. But his politeness of speech and yearning countenance soon wins over her already topsy-turvy heart to vote in his gentlemanly favor.

"Oh, do let him in! This must be important or he would not come at this time of night to see her. Am I not right, Len-chan?" Caterina Kanazawa was just getting used to the polite Japanese suffix attached to the ends of their names and had been calling all the girls at the slumber party '-chan,' so she didn't think twice about the correct, more formal address for a young man.

Tsukimori is taken aback by the address that had never been assigned to the bocchama in his entire life, even when he was very young.

"Now, don't fret, girls! Len-chan will close his eyes until I say 'Open Sesame!' Okay, Len-chan?" Caterina had a naturally bossy way of taking over any situation, she being a boisterous Leo every flirtatious way in the astronomical sense.

She leads by the embarrassed hand a tightly closed eyed and surely red-faced Tsukimori Len across the girls' party room, deftly avoiding the abandoned pillows, strewn bottles, chocolate and marshmallow covered bowls, bits of clothing and untold amounts of hair supplies scattered along the way.

Opening the door to an unoccupied room, she deposits Tsukimori there as if he were a stray dog. He loosens his hot-necked collar while he waits, glad to be the only one in the room.

"I'll be right back with Kahoko-chan, Len-chan!" The Dutch lady meant well as she puts a silencing finger towards the other chattering, giggling girls from the kitchenette, reentering the room for their cooperative silence, as she knocks on the bathroom door where Fuyuumi Shoko and Shouji Megumi were being experimented on, as the youngest of the 'sisters', with curlers and makeup and tons of rouge by their senpai Mori Manami, Hino Kahoko and Takatou Mio.

"Kahoko-chan? You're needed elsewhere~!" Caterina sings out sunnily. She opens the door to find Shouji's caramel hair standing straight up in all directions, thanks to the can of super hairspray and 'Got2B Glued' spiking gel expertly squeezed in Mori's wet and wild hands. And if Shouji wasn't in bad enough shape, poor Fuyuumi seemed to receive the brunt of makeup madness. Her eyes were so shadowed, it was almost frightening. Her cheeks were so blushed with rouge ('Shoko the Clown' would've been a good name for her at this moment) and her lips—oh! Fuyuumi's poor lips!—were half fire-red and half purple! Kahoko and Mio just couldn't decide which suited the heretofore pure faced girl that make-up never touched.

So they tried them bothon her, and terrifying were the results.

"Oh! I'm not quite done here—" Hino starts to say, with one lipstick in her hand while Mio holds the other, armed and ready to attack, but Caterina smirks as she masterfully confiscates the pair of purple and red lipsticks from the perpetrating girls' hands.

"Yes, you are, young lady." Caterina gives the five girls her sternest look, with hands on hips causing their eyes to all widen in fear. "Go with the purple, Shoko-chan. It matches Keiichi-chan's shirt better. Besides, it is so you!"

Then to Shouji, she continues: "Looking very hot, Megumi-chan! I know Kiriya-chan will love it!" Shocking them and enjoying every second, Caterina chuckles with delight. She never lost her youth as the blushing girls are left in the bathroom hearing her laughter and sunshiny fun. Everyone was in consensus here and now that Kanazawa-sensei sure 'married up.'

Caterina was a bounty of feminine wiles and just plain fun to have around. "Come now, Kahoko-chan! You are needed in here!" The scheming Dutchwoman raises a warning yet conspiratorial fun loving eye at the five girlish heads bobbing out from the kitchenette to peer at Hino Kahoko and mystery behind the closed bedroom door awaiting her.

"Isn't the kitchen that way?" Hino asks innocently, certain it was her turn to try at cookery. Her head turns to see not a one of the retreating heads of Mizue, Miyabi and a yanked back Ayano by Nami and Nao, back into the kitchen, though all the curious eyes peek back again a few seconds later.

"No, dear! There's more sweets for you to help make in here!" Caterina says enigmatically, smiling at her own chosen set of words and their hidden innuendo. She knocks on the door and says quite enigmatically over a wondering Kaho:

'Open Sesame!'

Obediently, Tsukimori Len opens his eyes to see a yet-again nightgowned Kahoko before his glazed over stare at her.

"T-Tsukimori-kun?!" Hino cries out, her face turning red.

"Kahoko..." Tsukimori breathes her name, gulping down that rushing feeling strangling his chest yet again as it did every time he saw her now.

"There you go, Len-chan! Kahoko-chan, he wanted to see you alone! It's something VERY important, but he won't tell me...I'm sure, so we'll leave you to it, Len-chan! Toot toot!" She smiles as she sings a farewell, giving Hino a playful nudge in her heartthrob's direction.

"Oh, yes! Tsukimor—**Len...**" Hino remembers herself, blushing under his intense gaze as she takes a step backwards towards the door, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable, left in a bedroom alone with him, in her nightshirt no less!

"What did you want to talk to me about?" She swallows hard, trying to stop the feelings about to flow out.

"I..." Tsukimori starts to lose his nerve again when he looks around the room now for the first time. _A bedroom_?

_Kahoko...I long to reach for you in every dream...but I'm never very good at finding the right words, am I?_

_...I just..._

His eyes dart about, and he wished for this moment to be anywhere but here. He senses her discomfort as much as he felt his own tension intensify, drinking in her lithe form, then he quickly glances away.

"I just wanted to say...how wonderfully you played at the concert." Giving up, he stumbles for words.

"You, too, Len! I really, really enjoyed playing...with...you..." Frustrated, she tugs at her errant hair to stay in place, in its tortured state, after all the teased hairspraying going on just moments ago.

"Here...allow me." He couldn't take her struggling any longer. He comes to her and smoothes her wild tuft of red hair into place without thinking.

"Yes...thank you..." She felt lost and found all the same moment. The excitement of the day's glorious triumph and success made Kahoko's feelings soar to new heights, where music's mysteries play unrestrained in the heart...

And Len must've felt the same way, as his one sweaty palm leaves its secret realm in his pocket to smooth her hair. Wordlessly, he kisses her loose crimson strands to his lips and—

"Good night, Kahoko. I'll see you tomorrow." Not certain if he could suppress his feelings any longer and not wanting to lose control—not yet—he decides to escape, losing his mettle instead.

_Kahoko..._

A pensive Tsukimori makes a quick bow and hurriedly exits the door to safety. The squealing shrieks of hiding girls, not warned of a sudden male presence in their slumber party midst, signals to Hino that her Prince had truly left the area.

And she still had no idea of what he wanted to tell her that was so important that he would come this late at night to see her.

Kahoko smiles and leans against the door frame, closing her eyes dreamily. She knew her Len may be a little slow to describe his emotions, but he would be able to someday...

_Someday..._

And she would wait for her Violin Romance partner till then, for eternity...


	45. Chapter 45 - Saturday Night Fever

**Chapter 45: "Saturday Night Fever"**

Tsuchiura Ryotaro had an uncanny knack for crashing into Tsukimori Len at the most inopportune of moments. At least, the most embarrassing of them, anyway.

Just as Tsuchiura was coming out of the elevator, carting a few extra blankets/sleeping bags that he had been elected to beg, borrow and/or steal at the front desk, the flustered blue violinist's speedy retreat from the girl's rooms, causes the taller, brawnier man to upset the piled high load he could barely see over

"Whoa! **WATCH IT!**" Tsuchiura bellows, first in surprise and then in anger, upon seeing who messed him up.

"I'm...sorry." Tsukimori half-heartedly apologizes as the elevator doors call to him for escape from this night's perils.

"You should be! ARGH! Look at this mess! Why do I always have to play 'fetch' for everyone around here?" Tsuchiura grumbles, throwing his hands to the sky in frustration.

"I truly am sorry, Tsuchiura." Tsukimori was already on his knees, gathering the dropped goods helpfully. "I suppose I wasn't adequately watching where I was going. Forgive me." He politely apologizes again, meeting Tsuchiura's eyes.

"I guess I have to." He feels a compulsive smirk come to his lips. There was something in his rival's nervous demeanor that made his own sadistic spirit glow with triumph.

"IF you help me bring these things to Kanayan's room." Tsuchiura smugly plunks folded blanket after blanket into Tsukimori's reluctant arms, though the contrite lead violinist was at a loss to protest.

"Kanazawa-sensei's room?" Tsukimori repeats, as he follows Tsuchiura down to the far end of the hall, to the only previously unoccupied room left on the sixth floor of the Grand Hotel.

"Yeah, didn't you know?" Tsuchiura hmphs as he hefts the weighty piles of sleeping bags, not so well folded or compact as before. "Kanayan and his missus decided to stay over in that last room  
Yunoki-senpai booked, and he's got this silly idea for all us guys to have a sort of hang out, sleepover/ club night to relax. Don't ask me, but Fudou-senpai, Kaji, Hihara-senpai, and even Yunoki-senpai and Shimizu latched right onto our old Teach's crazy scheme. I suppose the old guy misses being our _Sensei_. But since we won't be here in Vienna much longer, I said _'what the heck...for old times' sake'_, I guess." Tsuchiura shrugs his shoulders as he finds his own sense of familiarity return when he chats with the silent man he once despised, not expecting any response, as per usual.

But between the bond of performing with their instruments on stage again as an ensemble, and seeing how much the stuck-up jerk meant to Hino Kahoko displayed before all the world's stage tonight, how long could the gruff pianist hold a grudge?

"They were playing stupid video games and doing some cooking and starting up a chess match when I left. Kanayan wants us to just let our hair down and have fun after this tough week the Director's dragged us through." Tsuchiura explains, stopping at the door to turn to his so far silent companion.

"So do you want in? After all, 'misery loves company.'" The blunt green haired man holds out an uncharacteristic olive branch.

"I don't think—" Tsukimori starts to decline the invitation when his roommate, Ousaki Shinobu's pleasant voice comes from behind the conversing pair.

"I wondered where you'd gotten off to, Tsukimori-kun! Good you caught him, Tsuchiura-kun. We couldn't let you miss this wrap up celebration party that Kanazawa-sensei especially requested all Seiso students to attend for the world! There's even going to be pancakes, Etou-kun!" Ousaki turns his sunshiny smile upon his own recalcitrant violinist escapee, as if the promise of treats was too tempting to resist. But the sixteen-year-old had a resigned look on his usually cocky face as he trails down the hall after the man who had unwittingly accosted him, just moments earlier from the peace and quiet of his hotel room.

"If you say so...But I wasn't even a student yet when Hiroto-san was teaching."Murmuring the grumble beneath his breath, Etou Kiriya was not exactly the 'party animal' type, he giving them a dubious back glance. Then Etou's eyes meet his fellow victimized violinist who wore the same sentiment just as plainly.

"It seems we have no choice." Tsukimori Len gives the younger man a side nod of sympathy.

"Good! It's settled, then! I see you have some sleeping bags, blankets and extra pillows for those of us who will be on the floor. I can smell Hihara's special pancakes cooking in there already! I hope there's lots of maple syrup to go 'round! This is going to be so much fun, isn't it, guys?!" Tsuchiura gives a mild ingratiating simper as Ousaki-senpai does all but drool in simple raptures.

But Ousaki's sickeningly bubbly optimism was hard to deny anything as he exchanges nods and happy smiles with the innately charming new teacher who opens the designated room's door with a greeting smile and welcoming wine glass.

"Are the pancakes with maple syrup ready yet, Fudou?" Ousaki asks his best friend excitedly right off, like a schoolboy at the sugary thought, as he peers around in the direction of the hotel room's kitchenette.

"Ahh, you still have that sweet tooth, _mon ami_. I prefer this wine, myself, though maple syrup becomes _you_." The young French educator amiably shares a smiling tease and chuckle with his close friend as he ushers the remainder of the guests into Kanayan's–_ahem_ –Kira's hotel suite.

Showing their affable collegiate bond, Yosuke hands Ousaki his own half-full wine glass, to swiftly appease his friend's hunger. The obviously well-versed in fine French wines gentleman then replenishes whoever's half-empty glass was sitting on the endtable after a satisfied sniff of its vintage as he raises it for a quick toast.

"To Kanazawa-sensei's good health." With a graciously bowed head, Yosuke gestures his glass to the man across the room, clinking with that of his best friend, as both respectfully nod to their elder. Fudou Yosuke and Ousaki Shinobu were truly two of the genuinely classy kind of a lost breed.

"Here, here, Fudou! Shall we all 'loosen up' now, as Kanazawa-sensei recommended?" And after gulping down a large swig of his red wine, Ousaki not only loosens his tie, but giddy, removes it entirely, as he and his former senpai share sly chuckles.

Tsukimori and Etou exchange a weirded out look with Tsuchiura, as Ousaki Shinobu continues to burst with enthusiasm. The college graduate was acting more like a teen or child than any of the rest of the gang, as the noisy cacophony of guitar rock music blares from the kitchen with the scent of maple syrup pancakes luring the string quartet into the chaotic party room Kanayan was holding court over.

"Ousaki! Fudou! I see you've brought the bubbly! And managed to gather our thoroughbreds into the fold, too! I've got a groovy number with their names on it!" Kanazawa 'DJ' Hiroto was flipping through his iPod's vast musical banks (consisting of mainly the 70s music he loved and grew up on) as he catches sight of the newcomers to the 'Kanayan Night Bash' scene. The hit tune "Knights in White Satin" was currently blasting over the speaker system he had masterfully hooked up. "Listen to that! Now THAT was music! Now all we need are some disco footlights! That'd be awesome, man!" Kanayan busts some moves on his own dance floor of his dreams, Yosuke and Ousaki none too shabbily swaying their own hips in rhythm with him.

"I am **so** not here." Etou says sourly, disbelieving his eyes at the  
inane, lax behavior of a former Seiso teacher, not to mention the OBs and senpai throughout the connecting suite, all acting like fools.

Shoma, Hihara and Yunoki were almost reduced to a food fight in the kitchen if Ousaki didn't lend his pancake pilfering aid, from the sounds and smells of burning sugar and laughter.

Blissfully undisturbed by the surrounding ruckus, Kaji and Shimizu were plopped on the floor of the sitting room as they were  
comfortably playing games on their ever-present PSPs.

"If you can't beat 'em..." Calm Tsuchiura unfolds out some of the sleeping bags he was carting around in front of the fireplace for the pair of blondes and himself, to give in and join in the boyish pastime, arguing on the floor which Haruka 3 character each preferred. (_I like Benkei-dono. He tells everyone to take it easy and rest. And he's the doctor, so he knows best..._) Big yawn!

* * *

Tsukimori-kun! Etou-kun! Come on! Get down! Cut loose for once! Find your groove!" Sunglasses in place over his eyes, Super Disco Man Kanazawa Hiroto was not holding anything back as he beckons to the hesitant pair, dancing and singing his way towards them with all his hip swaying might.

"I am REALLY so not here." Etou repeats in monotone, horrified at the madness of the once-seeming-to-be-sane former teachers and graduates.

"Ditto." Tsukimori mutters under his breath, equally aghast, as he waves off with a mortified hand, Hihara with his hair tied back, and his happy offer of slightly burnt pancakes, as even pancake munching Ousaki-senpai and a bit tipsy enjoying his fruit of the grape  
Fudou-sensei, get into the moment, breaking out more champagne bottles and popping the corks of celebratory bubbly.

"Let's get out of here while we still can, Len-san. No one's looking." Etou whispers in conspiracy to Tsukimori, but Kanayan had eyes in the back of his head when it came to hooky-playing youngsters, developed from his years of being a teacher.

"Unh, unh, unh, you two! Not so fast! Hold it right there, gentlemen!" With a wagging finger in their detected un-hip direction, Kanayan doesn't even miss a beat of his rhythmic disco swaying, as he spins on his white heel to dance towards the astonished guilty pair about to make their halted exit.

"Here're some party favors for you two, so you fit in more!" Kanayan comes up from behind the retreating young stallions, throws his captive arms over both their shoulders and produces a pair of dark sunglasses for each .He pushes them over each set of bewildered eyes.

"Now you two cool brats can be too cool cats! Owww, that's a groovy rhyme! 'Far out!' Ha ha ha!" Thumbs up in the air at them, he goes back to swinging and swaying around the room, like the hip drunk disco dancer they all knew he no longer was.

"Come on! It's 'Saturday Night Fever,' baby!" He cries out, pausing his burgandy open-shirted gait to place an unlit cigarette between his teeth (_for effect only, my pe_t) and lean back against Tsukimori's distressed shoulder with a demanding glare.

"You should be dancin'!" Energetically, Kanayan takes off again on his deft heel like a youthful disco pro cutting a rug, as the Bee Gees' famous repertoire of music that epitomized the disco reign over the speakers like wildfire.

Gorgeous studs Etou Kiriya and Tsukimori Len did indeed look 'too cool' through their dark shades as they look to each other and then to the chaotic 'disco' world before them with a sigh. The two leading heartthrobs who would send many a feminine heart palpitating with their classically trained music, seemed doomed to be trapped here for tonight amidst sounds of pounding nightclub-like pandemonium ensuing in the atmosphere all around them...


	46. Chapter 46 - Checkmate

**Chapter 46: "Checkmate"**

Caterina Kanazawa had seen to tucking in her 'girls' after an adventurous night of fun and primping at making oneself beautiful for romantic dreams they each no doubt had in store. She had grown to like the young women-each for their individual selves and love lives they had confided in her, as if she was an older sister-or even mother...

Caterina was sad to think that this lively bunch of vivacious loving-life girls who embraced their fantasies and futures filled with music and the boys that made that wondrous music play, would be leaving soon, going back home to Japan, where she'd never see them again. She'd never discover if all the dreams and hopes they shared with her would come true or be fulfilled.

The woman from Holland wanted to embrace them all, and help their dreams come to pass. For she knew now that this was their moment of blossoming love, and she knew personally well that they'd never have this chance again to do it right in the first place from the painful experience of her own misspent youth.

She wanted to get to know her Hiroto's 'kids' more-his 'boys' as well as these lovely young ladies. She had an idea to give them every opportunity to see those romantic ideals realized, if she could just tweak things a bit...

"Hiro?" Caterina whispers to the man seated across from her, over the chessboard on the coffee table before the roaring fireplace in the 'club room' that had been the scene of chaos and frivolity, singing and dancing, gameplaying and cooking, and laughter- so much laughter-, but an hour ago.

"Yes, my dear?" It was now quiet as Kanayan answers, somewhat distractedly. He was so totally engrossed in plotting her white Queen's demise that he wasn't much on conversation to his real life 'queen.'

"Your boys are all very dedicated to their music, aren't they?" She queries quietly, her fingers elegantly toying with the black pawn and one black rook she had already captured.

"You could say that." Kanayan rubs his stubbly chin as if that action would give him a solution to the sticky chess scenario before him. After a minute of her silent scrutiny, the former teacher gazes up and about the room at the sleeping bags and couches filled with his 'boys,' all littering the extremely messy room primadonna Caterina had only marginally tidied up once she had returned from her own party for a friendly visit with her husband.

"Aren't you frightened that they are **too** dedicated to za music and not enough to their hearts?" She asks, in a low whisper, cocking her head closer to him, as she scans the passed faces around the room, and speaking even softer when a pale golden head on the pillow nearest to the fireplace stirs for a moment before returning to a blissful slumber. No one had had the heart to awaken Seiso's 'sleeping beauty' from his dreamland on the stone floor, they merely stuffing some fleecy blankets under his passed-out noggin.

"Huh?" Kanayan was at a loss. He thought this was only a friendly game of chess, and not the inquisition from his other half, especially at this late hour of night.

"They are all at a certain age, when decisions they make today will lead them down different paths-and I'm afraid some of those paths may turn out lonely, if they aren't careful. I know that all too well myself." Caterina touches a dramatic hand to her heart, for she was inherently an actress. But just one look into her beautiful purple eyes, told him it was heartfelt as well.

"As do I, my love, as do I." Kanayan tears his eyes and mind from the chess match to reach across the board and take his lady's hand, nuzzling it to his lips.

"I have been speaking to the girls-they are such wonderful young ladies. I do like them, very much. Nao-chan and Mio-chan, too! I am so pleased they joined our little party tonight." Caterina smiles proudly, thinking about the young, noble members of her sex that she'd become more closely acquainted with as of late.

"Yeah, they're a pretty decent lot. They've been working hard, too, I hear, for a certain redhead." Kanayan considers the youthful females who dreamed up this crazy excursion. He knew some better than others, being their music teacher. Hino Kahoko's face flashes through his mind in the end, followed by a smile.

"And they all deserve to be rewarded for that friendship and goodness for a fellow sister! Don't you agree? They each have a dream of love of their own. I vant to give each of them the chance to a fairytale ending, if it's in my power." Caterina whispers passionately. By now, she had sidled over to her hubby and was leaning against his chest as both gaze at the blazing fire's flickering flames.

"That sounds like you have hatched a plan already, Fairy Godmother. Is the Grand Duke to be in on your magical fairy dust spell, Kind Benefactress?" Kanayan cuddles her to him, back into his Rigoletto role again, playfully bantering back. He knew when his wife had a plot brewing.

"Only if he promises to convince the magnanimous 'King'/Director to play along with this Fairy Godmother's hopeful plans for all the 'Cinderellas' to attend the ball!" Caterina wheedles in verse, her coy fingers running up her husband's chest and neck, to land upon his puckered lips.

"Aww, man, do I have to get him involved? Believe me, when it comes to this kind of thing, that guy can be such a $%* -"

"Hiro! The children!" She halts her husband's ill-mannered words against his best friend, with one angel's sleepyhead, safely in dreamland, not five feet away, at the foot of the mantle, in mind.

"Ohhh, come on, Cat, I really don't-" Kanayan begins to protest when his wife leaves his embrace, going back to her side of the coffee table to resume the chess match. In one swift move in four, she takes her turn to 'check' four of his most valuable pieces-the knight, then rook, then queen to king.

"Check...and mate." She announces triumphantly, turning to smile, her point made, in his face that already knew the answer.

"All right." He sighs. "Explain me the 'magic' again and I'll go wake up Kira now." Kanayan sighs again, then smiles, knowing it was futile to argue with his determined wife-of-a-gifted-soprano, or a beautiful philanthropic fairy godmother either...

He kisses her forehead as he slips on his slippers to leave the room to pay the piper...

* * *

Poor Kira Akihiko hadn't had a good night of sleep for days now. At last, he'd finally been allowed a Fata-free night, for the blasted multitude of creatures had itchy wings to spread their inspired music around the world again, leaving him to this new extra room alone, praise be.

And now, here was Kanazawa-senpai and his wife, knocking down his door at what time in the morning? Although moody Kira was at first enraged at his so-called friend's untimely, unceremonious and inconsiderate awakening of one exhausted man, Kanayan had only to utilize the threat of his ace-in-the-hole-one equally exhausted real fairy Lili-who had just come back from seeing off his relations and was currently asleep on Kira's pillow, appearing who-knows-when in the night, unbeknownst to the tired 's when Kanayan had arrived, knocking on the bedroom door to rudely wake him up.

"Well..." Kira keeps a quiet watchful eye on the snoring Fata, to stay out of his decisions for once in his life, as the married couple explain their outlandish plan. Kira was too fatigued himself to fight anymore. Besides, the students all did an excellent job at the concert, and didn't embarrass him-in fact, quite the opposite by everyone's glowing reviews. Perhaps they did deserve some spoiling.

_Indeed, they're a credit to the school, their teachers, to me...to Mari..._

Kira still sees Tsuzuki Mari's elegant face smiling contently as she sat beside him, up in the private balcony box they had shared during 'Rigoletto' and his annoyed, hardened heart softens again.

"Why not? I suppose if you have the consent of 'your friend' already, Kanazawa-okusan, who am I to stop you?" Kira relents with a resigned sigh, knowing something he wished he didn't, and never feeling quite so powerful in his night robe, standing in front of a tall, imposing lady who enjoyed being called 'Kanazawa-okusan' very much.

"Good man, Kira." Kanayan pats Kira's shoulders. "You know these kids deserve a reward for what they accomplished tonight."

"Kids?_ Hmph!_" Kira sourly smirks at the thought of the little wretches.

"Don't you like children, Akihiko?" Caterina asks, somewhat out of the blue, Kira conceding her Western style of address.

"Children? I-" Strange contortions cross Kira's face. "No, I don't." He finally answers bluntly, in truth.

"A pity." Caterina says thoughtfully, her brows knitting sadly for the lonely director.

"Well, I for one love my kids and they love me back. And I'm gonna do my darndest to do the best I can for them. Right, Cat?" Kanayan directs the first half of his sentence to Kira and the second half of his statement to Caterina, hugging an arm around her sagging shoulders at Kira's deflating comment.

"You are my angel, my Hiro..." She whispers, inexplicably on the verge of tears as she throws her arms around her husband's neck.

"Wow...I wouldn't go all that far, but you can, if you'd like. Don't let me stop you" With a chuckle, Kanayan enjoys her tender embrace, giving his disinterested audience of one a countering devilish grin.

"Beat that, old man." Over his shoulder as he leans a hand against the wall, his eyes glowing with pride, Kanayan shows off as Caterina plaintively coos up at him.

"There, there, kitten. All settled." And her significant other pays significant attention to his 'Cat', petting the crown of her head. She stands up from her seat to leave, her smiling mouth twitching expectantly as her husband's handsome face draws intimately closer...

Kira rolls his disgusted eyes at the flirtatious married couple who intruded on his precious sleep, as Lili continues to thankfully snore, blissfully unawares of the magical plots mere human beings were hatching tonight...


	47. Chapter 47 - Auf Wiedersehn, Vienna

**Chapter 47: "Auf Wiedersehen, Vienna"**

"Hino Kahoko! Hino Kahoko! I have wonderful news, you know!" Wide awake now and full of thrilling information, Lili comes fluttering into Tsuzuki Mari's room, squeezing through the keyhole and giggling almost hysterically with delight.

"What is it, Lili?" Kahoko stifles a yawn with a bright morning smile, trying to decipher the Fata's jubilant rant so early in the morning. Just then, an excited Amou Nami comes racing in, right at Lili's winged heels. Exploding into the hotel room, she inadvertently takes away Lili's glory as the dizzy redhead star violinist turns to Amou, as do all the rest of the girls where she, Shoko, Ayano and Mio were just making their makeshift beds, while Miyabi, Mizue, Manami and Nao were busy clearing up the rest of the slumber party mess as the two elder ladies, Mari and Caterina, had already left for early meetings with Director and husband, respectively.

The girls all agreed that Tsuzuki-san had been great and all of them really got to know both her and Caterina Okusan a lot more as they chatted, laughed and shared secrets together that only feminine hearts could understand. The close knit group now all huddle around the  
vivacious reporter for Amou was almost bursting with her news scoop knowledge.

"Pack your bags, girls! We are leaving Vienna!"

"WHAT?! Leaving?! We still have another day!" Nearly all the girls whine and protest their last stolen day in one voice. Kahoko's heart sinks for a moment, for she so wanted to show special friends Nao and Mio some of the extraordinary sights she had experienced in the city, now that they were here as well.

Lili hovers over Amou's head, glaring. "No fair! I wanted to tell, you know!" But the reporter girl his wrath was aimed at, as well as Mizue, Ayano, Nao nor Mio, could not hear Lili's rantings, nor his tongue razzing right in Amou's ear.

"I'll give you a hint!" Unaware of the noisy Fata buzzing around her head, Amou winks at the girls and begins to hum a tune. "Da dee dee da dum, da da dee da dum dum..."

Nine girls stare at her blindly, blinking blankly with dots for eyes.

"No! NO! Those notes are all wrong, Amou Nami, you know! You have no music in your soul! No wonder you can't see me!" Lili shakes his head distastefully at the hummed sour notes of the human girl, as he cries out to Amou's non-hearing, non-musical ears.

"Here's how it really goes, you know! La so la fa mi, re do do, ti do do!"

Now, four of the five girls who _could_ hear Lili continue to stare blankly lost, until...

"Oh-ohh! We're going to Salzburg, Austria! I've always wanted to visit there!" Miyabi Yunoki cries out of nowhere, shocking them all to dropped jaws, stunning both deflated Argento Lili and impressed Amou Nami.

"You're right...da dee dee da dum, da da dee da dum dum...That's where 'The Sound of Music' was filmed!" Shouji interjects. She had always been a musical aficionado since she was a little girl, and loved good singing and romance, both captured in full technicolor there.

"Oh, I **love** that movie!" Mizue the romantic says, while Mio and Fuyuumi nod in agreement of the heartwarming Rodgers and Hammerstein classic.

"How did you get anything out of that?" Realist Nao asksincredulously of the poor excuse for humming. The actual music and Amou's rendition of it were two different things entirely.

"Well...is Miyabi-chan right?" Kahoko asks with hopeful,  
enthusiastic eyes vacillating between Lili and Amou, and then land upon the small plum-haired girl. Everyone squeals with anticipation as they see either Lili seething at the spoilt game or Amou's lip-twist as both fairy and reporter nod affirmatively at the girl's correct guess right off.

"So what gave it away? Amou or Lili's version of the movie's score?" Mori Manami asks behind her hand to Miyabi in a whisper.

Sheltered little Yunoki Miyabi gazes wide-eyed up at them all with a puzzled look on her pretty face.

"What's the 'Sound of Music' sound like? I thought it was something from Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' that I've been studying in class. Salzburg is where Wolfy Mozart was born, right? Huh?" Miyabi cocks her dumb, yet serendipitous, little head with this adorable  
statement. Every last one of them burst out in giggles, if not falling over flat laughing with the new excitement of what their final days in romantic Austria had in store for them.

Each hugs their most innocent littlest sister of the Girl Power group, (to which Nao and Mio were automatically honorary inductees) as  
expectations of the new morning soar to untold heights.

* * *

_'The same as they were for a thousand years...'_

The hills were indeed alive with sights and sounds of music and beauty as our twenty-four travelers from a faraway land glimpse through an inter-speed train window the scenic Wachau mountain range by Melk to the north and west of Vienna, only before seen by most of them on a movie screen.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Kira Akihiko! This is where you grandfather nursed me back to health, you know!" Emotional Lili was in tears of past memories of joy as he hugs the back of the Director's exasperated head. Kira rolls his eyes, about to swat the clingy fairy away, like the annoying bug he was, when Tsuzuki Mari compassionately takes and cradles the emotional creature for a few moments as Caterina operatically hums softly the famous song's sweet and poignant phrase.

Lili kicks his rhythmic legs and feet up in the air in tune as he poofs away suddenly with a content smile on his little face. The smile glows as he hums music all the while fairy dust floats over the entire train as the Fata rejoins the land of his birth, that radiance cascading across the blue blue sky, crossing mountains in the glistening distance...

* * *

Ousaki Shinobu deftly leads the group upon their journey on the ICE Inter-speed rail system which, fortunately enough, the well traveled young OB, two years ago, had attended the Salzburg Music Festival which was held every September for over eighty years before. He was quite familiar with the famed city that is known for being one of the best preserved and most musically and religiously renowned in all of Europe. From the glorious Maria Plain Basilika to St. Peter's Abbey, to the Benedictine Monastery—Salzburg has been a holy place of worship for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, since the eighth-century saints established the Basilika on Calvary Hill.

"...and beyond the important holy sanctuaries and glorious mountain views, Salzburg is also notable for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, where many statues and shrines are dedicated to the genius composer of significant operas and brilliant pieces that can be viewed at 'Mozart's Geburt Haus' in Altstadt—Old Town—district of Salzburg. The Feldsenreitschule Amphitheatre is also there, built for an Archbishop in 1693, carved into the mountain in Monchsberg nearby. Did you know, the historical building was first designed to be a horse training stable and was revitalized hundreds of years later to be the amphitheater it is today?" Donning a casual sporty t-shirt and firmly holding onto his favorite orangy rucksack, Shimizu Keiichi's soft toned voice drones along the train ride with about as much  
enthusiasm as he ever displayed before. His sleepy eyes were wide awake for once as they drink in the landscapes flowing past the windows as he points at every passing landmark of historical note.

"Doesn't he **EVER** get tired of hearing his own voice?" Fudou Shoma sighs to the small girl seated beside him at the endless stream of unimportant info Shimizu was spouting. Shoma didn't like being cooped up in the confining train compartment and was the type to  
enjoy refreshing scenes for himself, rather than someone explaining them to him beforehand.

"Shoma, behave." Yosuke softly chides his younger brother from the aisle across. The approachable man always had to tone his somewhat coarse sibling down. But more than a few smirks and guffaws in Shimizu's encyclopedic direction proved Shoma wasn't singular in the sentiment.

The arrogant twenty-year-old gives his brother a victorious look, even as Shimizu's voice continues to drone on in the background.

"...The SalzakRiver runs along the northern boundary of the Alps. Its peak is called 'Untersberg' and can be clearly seen from the Salzburg Altstadt center—where we are parallel with about now." Not hearing a word of the dissent from his impatient audience from the first minute he was told of the renowned city as their destination, Shimizu Keiichi had been reciting detail after detail of the city of Salzburg that he'd gleaned over the years of all its glories, until nearly every one of his traveling companions were well enough versed with the city as if they'd been born and raised there themselves.

Only Fuyuumi Shoko truly never tired of hearing Shimizu's insightful ramblings. From the minutest detail about Mozart's life, to notable events, legendary composers who visited Salzburg in the past, or its historical scenery, Shimizu was an expert the entire airplane ride and railway drive filled with the knowledgeable boy's eagerness in passing on information of the facts he held in his head.

"Who needs a tour guide when we have Shimizu-kun...? Heh, heh, heh..." Kaji Aoi's intended ridiculing chuckles grow nervous when Director Kira shoots the young golden blonde man a stern look. Kaji gulps in guilt at his words, and Shoma was glad that he wasn't the glared at victim of the dark Director.

"At least Shimizu Keiichi is admirable enough to put importance on his musical studies and classical history knowledge that will prove invaluable in **HIS **future career as a performing artist in the classical field. It is commendable, Shimizu-kun." Kira took pride in this blonde youth's uncanny memory for everything musical, committed to the vast files of facts stored in his genius mind. Kira was well aware why Shimizu Keiichi was this year's valedictorian at Seiso. But the boy's sweet golden smile would never brag of the fact, and would only be outdone by the almost visible halo about his pure head, as he spoke.

"I'd like to visit the Abbeys and the Monastery, the Basilika and the Cathedral, and of course, Mozart's shrine, too." Shimizu's face was alight with a curiosity and wonder that never grew old.

"I don't think you'll have time for all that, Shimizu-kun." Tsukimori Len tries to let the eager musician down lightly with a pleasant amiable smile. But he didn't have the knack for such niceties quite yet. Though at the moment, as Kahoko leans her head snugly against her Len's warm stripy shirted chest, in her lovestruck eyes, the blue-haired stunner with the delicious digits she was nuzzling—could do no wrong.

"Oh." Came the disappointed 'angel's' only reply as Shimizu gazed longingly at the gorgeous scenic spectacle whizzing past the train's windows.

"Don't worry, my boy. There'll be lots to do where we're going!" Kanayan comfortingly says, slapping the boy's back to which Shimizu doubles over.

"And where is that going to be, exactly, Mr. Kanazawa Hiroto? On the record..." Amou shoves her recorder's microphone in her old teach's face, out of nowhere.

"Get that thing out of my face!" Kanayan protests with a hard swipe at the unwanted object, thrusting it away.

"Oooh, Kanayan! You're still an old stick in the mud!" The frustrated reporter in Amou vents her anger as she rushes to save her recorder from being trampled.

"Just for that, I'm not gonna tell you until we get there! My lips are SEALED!" Kanayan pulls an invisible zipper across his mouth to the group's collective 'Awwwwwww!'

"How about you, Okusan?" Hihara joins in the fun as he turns to ask Kanayan's operatic partner, who seemed more of a soft touch than her stubborn husband.

"A dutiful _Okusan _always follows her _Ottosan'_s lead." Caterina answers safely, with a respectful bow of her head to her love, though there was a conspiratorial gleam in her eye.

"Don't know about that!" In simultaneous chorus, Mizue, Nao, Manami, and Nami exchange smirks, first with each other and then with their respective guys, achieving four entirely different responses—exasperation, amusement, submission, pride—from four entirely different young men as interested audience.

"It's actually to my dutiful wife that you all owe this surprise journey to. It pays to be adored, kids." Kanayan profoundly comments as the ICE train comes to a stop. "...and adorable..." Kanayan murmurs in Caterina's hair as he leans back, nuzzling his chuckling beauty. The other eleven couples enjoy the view whooshing by the fast moving coach too much to notice the sticky couple after Kanazawa-sensei's enigmatic words as the train pulls into the station..

Their blonde tour guide insists on hitting the gift shop on the train platform upon their arrival, soon displaying a glass traveling tumbler, made locally in the vicinity with the image of Salzburg's most famed citizen etched upon it as his claimed booty, though everyone else was more interested in what lie in store for them up ahead than what was in the souvenir store at its exciting entrance.

Amidst the Alpine mountain peaks, a little sparkle of light named 'Lili' was fluttering to and fro, seen ecstatically wandering into the vast beauty that was Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of not only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most revered composers of all time, but also the origin of a certain Argento, as well as his dream to bring music to the world, nursed here from the brink of death back to life, some sixty-five plus years before, as the fairy returns home for the first time, elated with nostalgic joy.

Hino Kahoko's own eyes fill with tears for Lili—her special dear friend and bringer of a destiny and love for music and so much more she never dreamed possible without an ample amount of 'magic fairy dust' sprinkled upon her fairytale romance. Kahoko's eyes meet Len's as he places a comforting, tender hand over her hot tear-stained cheeks, atoned with a heartening kiss.

An awe-inspired hush falls over them both, in happiness and gratitude to that 'sparkle' of light and music unleashed throughout that began their miraculous Violin Romance.

Sounds of music begin to play a new song for Len and Kahoko as the hills come to life. The destined pair's unassailable cord of love glows over Salzburg's now golden encrusted countryside, its radiance spreading their warmth far across mountain peaks that stretch high up to an azure sky filled with unheard melodies yet to be played...


	48. Chapter 48 - The Hills Are Alive

**Chapter 48: "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music"**

Feeling Lili's excitement of returning to the famed city of Salzburg's beautiful historical vista running through her own veins through the bond she shared with the Fata was one thing. But the sight looming before them all was something else entirely, to set not only hers, but every other girlish heart well aflutter.

"Is this for real?"

Hino Kahoko's one statement pretty much covered every one of the ten feminine souls who were clutching hands and entwining arms, grouped together in a pile, like a herd of wide-eyed sheep, as they all held the same stupefied breath in awe.

"As real as your dreams can be, love." Caterina says in glowing, hushed tones, smiling from ear to ear, pleased as she drapes motherly arms around the shoulders of 'her girls'. They had all paused at the front entrance after exiting the stretch limousine that had brought them here, to take in this spectacular sight.

Before twenty youthful gazes, (that including Fudou Yosuke, who, despite his mature persona and teaching position at Seiso Academy, had only 23 years to his credit), stood the grandiose edifice of a glorious palace, set before the breathtaking backdrop of the Swiss Alps on the horizon. The Casa Austria, formerly known as Swoboda Villa, was the summer residence of the Archduke, Karl von Habsburg—the Prince Imperial of Austria, the grandson of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I, and the son of the Crown Head of the House of Habsburg, Otto von Habsburg.

Archduke Karl von Habsburg was also known as the Royal Prince of Hungary, the Sovereign of the Austrian Branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a member of the European Parliament—and the husband of Archduchess Francesca Thysson-Brummvran, who just happened to be Caterina Kanazawa's close friend and devoted opera enthusiast.

The older royal woman had become acquainted with the gifted soprano ingenue as an avid supporter of the arts and Caterina, in her youth, had been invited to stay at the Casa Austria many a summer to rest and recoup from the demanding grind of the opera world. Not to mention, to grace the musically interested royalty who much admired Caterina's soprano singing to welcome her beautiful voice at royal balls and parties at the castle.

"And it's all yours today to do whatever you'd like, as a reward for all your efforts!" Caterina shares a smile with her husband.

"Yeah, just don't go blowing it up or anything. There's some expensive stuff here." Kanayan jokes with levity at the overwhelming moment for some of the teens, causing a chuckle at least.

"Unfortunately, the Archduke and Duchess are abroad at the moment with their children, Eleanore, Ferdinand, and Gloria."

"Too bad. Eleanore's just about your age, Etou, and quite a looker, if I do say so my—oooff!" Kanayan gets a stiff elbow from his adoring wife in the gut, as she smiles in reassurance at the petrified Shouji and her horrified boy.

"_Ahem_ It is a shame we vill be on our own here, but I have called Francie and she has given us full run of the palace, the grounds, the servants—everything, for as long as we like. She only regrets not being able to hear you all play. Hiro has spoken so highly of his  
musically talented brood, that the Archduke and Duchess feel like they already know you! Francie even keeps a small theatre in the east wing of the Casa, for such live musical performances, since she so adores them. Too bad she is not here!" Caterina wistfully smiles, meeting each dreamy eye of the girls and then scanning the somewhat eager, somewhat pensive looks crossing the young male faces as they join the girls now on the wide front entrance steps.

"I do hope you boys realize how to make dreams come true by now." She murmurs lowly and a bit coyly behind her, deciding to prod a few recalcitrant at romance stragglers with a raised eyebrow, filled with hidden meaning, for the fortuitous romantic world she's opened before them on their final day on the continent was not to go to waste.

Amou Nami was in perfect raptures for her magazine photo spread possibilities, as wild eyes thirst for all things bright and beautiful that would play to the human comedy as backdrop. She takes in the impressive, stately castle and its luxuriant landscape, fully determined to make this a day to remember.

"Dreams tied in yellow ribbons, I see." Memorable in his own right as he takes in the lovely scenery about him, Ousaki Shinobu placidly smiles as he notes the array of trees just peeking from the left wing of the Villa. Although bereft of their full foliage by the hand of the Winter Meister, there were, in exchange, multicolored strips of fabric entwined about their leafless branches.

"Ribbons? Ja, yes! De kinderen! Oh, excuse me, _the children_ must have left decorations from the Oktoberfest celebration Francie holds here every year. She loves the little ones dearly." The opera soprano smiles thoughtfully, glancing down to her hands at her sides.

"It is a lovely sight in the early afternoon such as this! Feel free to explore the grounds you like, _mijn lieverd_ (_my sweets_), while the sun is warm and high in the sky." The Dutch woman doesn't even have to finish her invite before Amou Nami takes off towards the grove of trees directly to investigator sniffing a heartwarming entrance story that deserved at least a photo or two in her 'Salzburg Unplugged' exposé.

"Excuse us, please, Kanazawa-san, Kanazawa-sensei. Wait for me, Nami-san!" A bowed head Ousaki makes polite respectful retreating excuses for them both, as he takes off in pursuit of his rapacious roving reporter, receiving many giggles from his audience.

"And as for the rest of you, come in! Come in, _alsjeblieft _(_please_)! There's so much we must show you inside! And then I promise we'll leave you all to do whatever you wish! I want everyone to enjoy the last days of your Austrian vacation to the utmost! Yes?" Benevolent Caterina squeezes hand after hand, as she leads the overwhelmed gang looking to and fro, into the stately palace that promised to be filled with flowing music and romantic dreams...

* * *

_Snap! Snap! Snap!_

Seeing camera possibilities abundant on the grounds, Amou had, without a second thought, chosen to remain outside when all the others had rushed indoors. She methodically empties her old faithful '_aibou'_ camera of it's film, automatically reloading another, cataloging this roll to be filled with the first introduction of the royal grounds.

"So, this is what goes on in Oktoberfest, eh? Here hold this." Absorbed in her element, indifferent Amou Nami seemed to take for granted that Ousaki Shinobu would always be there just at the right moment to balance the girl's camera gear before it drops to the ground, as she busily whips out and installs on her beloved 'aibou' a special lens for outdoor spectrum colors, barely glancing back.

"Ah, yes. I myself recently took part in the children's celebration of the festival in Vienna in the last week of October, just before you arrived." He smiles in fond memories of the little Viennese tykes enjoying themselves, as Nami continues to snap photos without making eye contact with him.

"I'm listening." When he pauses, Amou murmurs nonchalantly as she skitters about in search of the best shot, and they were plentiful.

"It's just one of the many Oktoberfest activities celebrated in the Germanic countries, sort of an Autumn Maypole." As he speaks, all four of Ousaki's eyes trace his energetic Nami's aerobics as she kneels, stretches, and contorts to focus every angle of the landscape like a true professional photographer.

Rapid fire photos take pictures of first the decorated tree covered with buntings, then the tall stone and brick mansion, and finally its glorious hilly countryside, pristine crisp in early winter sunshine.

"The tying of ribbons became tradition with the English Puritans beginning in the 1640s, heralding people to never forget their identity as Christians, even as they went out from the continent to the unknown New World of America." Ousaki offers the information, free of charge, accompanied by an intelligent smile.

"So, decorating trees is a European cultural thing that spread to America. Kind of like...Christmas?" New sharpened pencil clenched in teeth like a true newshound, Amou comments, latching onto that smile at the mention of the happy holy day not so far in the future, as she furiously chalks down the info in her quickly whipped out notepad.

"Although, adversely, the Maypole itself, in ancient times has roots in pagan rampant Europe, when Celtic Druids believed tying various colored ribbons symbolized different magical powers. That thought has carried down loosely in children's folklore and local customs in the spirit of fun and festivities today."

"That is so interesting, Shinobunny! You are a virtual fount of knowledge. Not just another pretty face, my partner in crime." She reaches a careless hand to pat his reddening cheek, blithely unaware of her semi-attentioned effect on him as she refers to their conspired success for Len and Kahoko's reunitement.

"Blue ribbons were tied for requests of healing, both...um...physical and emotional in nature." Ousaki fingers several of the blue wrappings adorning the trees higher boughs, almost nervously trying to skirt around the awkward subject in his mind, breathing air in through his mouth deeply instead.

"And red and pinkish ones?" Amou smirks at his sweetness as she decides to let it go. She gives the raggedy edged, pink with red spots fabric a little tug, causing the yellow one on the branch below to tumble off to the ground.

"Oops!" She bites her clip guiltily as she lurches forward to catch the descending wishful token, but her Shinobunny in shining armor comes to her rescue, catching the cloth before it hits the ground without missing a single beat of his conversation with her.

"I don't know about pink, but hanging red ribbons was to ask for blessings in the coming new year, and purple was for soothing peace of mind." With his mellow voice and gentle hands, Ousaki smooths both the wind flipped ribbons and Nami's similarly windblown tussled curls as he explains the passed down superstitions.

His be-spectacled eyes, softly engrossed upon her, almost cause the sentimentally practical journalist to blush under his intent gaze.

_Or it simply may have been the ruddy hues of that vibrant woven cloth waving in the bright blinding sunlight reflecting on my cheeks from above._

Ousaki Shinobu holds the coarse fabric of the work-hardened muslin yellow ribbon he had deftly saved, and tenderly caresses it between his fingers and the palm of his hand.

"Now, tying this yellow ribbon around an oak tree, especially, took on so many meanings. At first signifying hope and regeneration, then the simple act became a historical remembrance for returning soldiers by those they left behind as a symbol of their faithfulness, their loyalty, their undying fidelity for the one they loved and had been separated from so very far away, across the miles..."

Shyly peeking over his peepers and sighing softly, Ousaki's heartfelt sentence hits too close to home. But as his words trail off into a whisper near its end, Amou Nami watches the deadened-for-winter saddened tree transform before her, in the blink of an eye, into vibrant green leaves in all its verdant beauty when Ousaki reties the fallen yellow ribbon around the branch forking from the now vigorous tree trunk at his eye level, giving the old oak tree a golden aura of vivacious new hope again.

"And this yellow ribbon reminds me of **you** most of all, Nami-san." Gesturing to the pale ochre fabric he tastefully knotted about the tree branch, Ousaki begins softly humming the famous jaunty, yet touching, tune. Amou can't help herself from chuckling at his sweet flights of fancy, indeed joining in the spirit of the moment, as she adds her strong vocals to his supple harmony. Amou Nami was not ashamed one bit if anyone else hears as the pair of them, on one  
another's arm, basking in the noontime sun's glowing warmth on their imagination's green grasses serenading stroll, past the scenic gazebo and back towards Casa Austria's dignified front entrance.

On the contrary, she would be proud to be seen and heard dueting a tune on her Ousaki Shinobu's fine arm, anyday.

_Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon_

_She wore it in the Springtime, and in the month of May_

_And if you asked her why she always wore it, she'd tell you _

_'For my lover who is far far away'..._

And above the branches of the bare trees where colorful ribbons of hopes and dreams sway, blissful sounds of music begin to tinkle through, coming alive onto the picturesque atmosphere from over the legendary rolling hills where the Seiso group was beginning to set out on the next leg of their romantic journey...


	49. Chapter 49 - The World's A Stage

**Chapter 49: The World's a Stage"**

It was nearly noontime before the Seiso group finished the walking tour of Casa Austria's lovely sprawling grounds and ornate interiors.

Once they had shown everyone all the niceties available to them, Caterina and Kanayan seem to make themselves right at home, as if it was perfectly natural for the couple to sit at the head of such an imperial table, that Caterina arranges with the friendly palace housekeeper for lunch to be served upon.

After everyone had eaten, although yet again, excitement stunted some awestruck appetites despite the lavish fare, Kanayan, Caterina, Kira and Tsuzuki opt to take an after luncheon stroll in the unseasonably warm gardens. So the 'adults' leave the young people to their own devices inside the palace, which, for most of the curious souls, led by one Amou Nami, meant fully exploring the Casa's very interesting east wing.

Leaving the boys in the game-room for a round of billiards and darts, the adventurous girls soon found the place where the palace's private theatricals were held, after Caterina and Kanayan had described the plays and short opera acts performed especially at the opera enthusiast Archduchess' request.

"Take a gander at these costumes! Kana-okusan was serious when she said the Archduchess had acquired a real opera-designed full wardrobe!" Amou says with a low whistle, upon further investigation into the small dressing room backstage of the theatre where they find a bounty of costumes of tailored theatrical pedigree, both male and female, on display.

"Wow! They're so detailed!" Shouji Megumi can't help but finger the rows of golden buttons gleaming to her upon a Spanish soldier's uniform, belonging to, she was certain, 'Carmen's' Don Jose.

"This one has **got** to be the bull fighter, Escamillo! I wouldn't blame Carmen for falling for a man wearing this!" Hino Kahoko drools as she 'oles' the costume's red cape around herself, pawing the gold embroidery and medallions across the black tunic. She fingers the shoulder armor's thick roped tassels dreamily.

"I still prefer her dashing soldier myself." Shouji pets the high necked gold trimmed collar and feels the maroon fabric down to the golden sash as if she were already imagining a certain someone occupying the fancy coat with epaulettes and vest in costume.

When she catches Hino's eyes upon her, Shouji gasps with a start, and Hino giggles, wrapping a sisterly arm around the red-faced girl.

"Don't be embarrassed! I know how you feel exactly, because I can so see my Len wearing this one, too!" Hino continues to giggle conspiratorially, lifting a dark sleeve and almost feeling Tsukimori's thin, yet strong arm within its silky folds.

"And why not? That is **THE** most inspired idea for a photoshoot **EVER!** Kaho-chan! Megu-chan! You're both brilliant! Girls!" Amou claps her hands together for both joy and attention. "Kana-okusan said we could try some of these things on, right? Well, get choosing! This will make my photospread's professor sure to give my story an A++! The topping on the cake!" Amou excitedly yanks costumes from their hangers, tossing them indiscriminately to the other girls before their astonished curious eyes.

* * *

_In the unapprised west wing billiard room of the Casa Austria..._

"I wonder where all the girls got off to?" Kaji Aoi queries, his often wandering mind was more than often lately migrating to wherever Mori Manami- _ahem- everyone! -_was located.

"Already feeling tied to apron strings, Kaji?" Fudou Shoma scoffs as he sends a volley of balls flying in all directions on the billiard table he was currently challenging Etou Kiriya upon.

"It has been rather a long time for none of them not to pop in a head to check in and bother us, guys." Tsuchiura Ryotaro says in his oft negative, macho stand-offish way, in Kaji's sheepish defense. He for one never wanted to seem 'needy' to see a girl or too soft or too eager. He was glad that Mizue didn't require holding his hand every second.

"That would fall in the intriguing category of the intricacies of the jewel called 'woman.'" Yunoki Azuma speaks in a pleasant, yet not overly sugary tone. He seemed to smile inwardly as if the gems of Ayano's eyes, in his mind, brought a content smile to his face.

"Each as rare and as flawless as a diamond glimmering in the sunlight." The romantic in Fudou Yosuke reiterates Yunoki's descriptive alliteration as he holds up a rare Austrian crystal swan statuette he was admiring in the glistening sunlight.

"Do girls like jewelry that very much...? I never know what type to buy for Shoko as a present...A bracelet or a necklace? Or maybe earrings...? Oh, not earrings...she doesn't have pierced ears...I think. Or maybe she does...?" Shimizu Keiichi in his simple, slow way, goes on and on, off on a tangent of both his lofty senpais' comparitive words, until Etou Kiriya finally halts him abruptly.

"No, she doesn't, Keiichi." Etou answers in his clipped, precise way, looking up from sinking three balls in one cue, as Shoma groans. Etou becomes flustered though, when every eye in the billiard room lands upon him, with the silent question of how he knew such an intimate detail of Fuyuumi Shoko, when barely none of the rest of the young men who knew the girl far longer could be sure of anything concerning the physical nature of the timid girl who always seemed to fade in the background.

"Look, Megumi was talking about how she and Kahoko and some of the others were taking Shoko-san to the stupid ear-piercing booth and how the poor girl couldn't take the sight of blood, so they just left before doing the deed. That's all." He recalls what Shouji Megumi said, more than he cared to own. Despite always seeming distantly absorbed in his music, Etou Kiriya **was** listening to her every word.

"Many girls dislike seeing blood. It's natural, I believe." Often seeing Kahoko herself shrinking back from gory movie posters full of blood, Tsukimori Len speaks up in his turn, after sending another dart just mere millimeters from the bulls-eye this round as Tsuchiura eyes the scoreboard pensively, this duo never having stopped competing even now.

"Not Miyabi-chan! You should've seen her when I gashed my knee out back of the restaurant when I was moving boxes! She's a real trooper! Bandaged me up without blinking an eye—what a gal!" Hihara grins broadly at the memory of the sweet, young girl's firm touch and strong stomach as Etou sighs, a tad annoyed at his match partner for blowing yet another chance at scoring, as Hihara's talking caused him to miss every single ball on the table. "Oops..." Hihara Kazuki smiles, shrugging his shoulders as he chuckles apologetically to his more precise, finger-tapping and vexed partner.

"Looks like you're behind the eight ball again, Hihara!" Fudou Shoma never lacked a smile, nor snide comment, when the opportunity arose.

"The story of your life, Hihara?" Yunoki jumps on the teasing bandwagon of his best friend, as he flows over to the exciting billiards match to watch Hihara's blunders.

"Not since Miyabi-chan came into it. Ooomph!" The happy OB gains Etou's smiling eyed confidence again, as, in his next turn, Hihara manages to sink one particularly squirrelly ball with an inspired shot. Yunoki pats his friend's shoulder proudly with one hand, as he pets the petals of soft roses in a varied spray in the vase nearby on a curio desk nearby with the other.

"Each of our young ladies have so many wonderful attributes in themselves-like those flowers. Every one different, yet just as lovely in their own aspects of soft, tender beauty, now in full bloom before us." Exchanging a nod with the indigo haired heir to a floral empire, Ousaki Shinobu's poetic words are put to proof as a knock comes to the palace's billiards room door, which he innocently opens.

A dark cloaked figure standing there puzzles him for a few seconds. He didn't know if it was a man or a woman until the dark robe falls to the floor with dramatic flourish and the obscured visitor tosses back her hood and lets out a laugh, as the 'blooming flower' revealed was his own Amou Nami. She rushes in on sandals, wearing an extremely sleek pinkish flowing ancient looking toga. Her off the shoulder gauze like fabric cascades around her body with a wreath of entwined green leaves crowning her curly head, giving her the ostentatious beauty of a queen.

"You were saying?" Amou saunters up to Ousaki and smirks, touching a feminine hand to her strawberry blonde tresses. Then she swirls before him on her heel to show off her pale pinkish Persian goddess gown, with a deep red with gold trim accented cape and shimmering golden armbands.

"My ever changing, ever beautiful, double delight rose." Ousaki takes both her hands in his, likening her to the delicate bloom of a tea rose, whose colors vary magically with the season's change into a new blossom, transformed before every man in the room's already astonished eyes.

"Don't stand there gaping at me, boys." Pulling back on her ancient manly robe as if to disguise her feminine form, Amou lifts Hihara's dropped jaw back up with a finger. She points to the open door behind her, before the ten pairs of young masculine eyes. "Wait till you see the rest of the bouquet!" She latches on to Ousaki's flowery analogy. "Come on in, ladies!" She cues the other members of her group as one by one, they flow in.

Pretty Miyabi flutters in, adorable in a pink petal strewn fabric of an 18th Century party dress and flowery headband, as she wows them with a flouncy spin to display herself upon entering the room.

Next, exotic Ayano poses, regal and dignified as an ornate ancient Eastern princess. The golden Chinese dragon brocade designs befitted the artist as she lifts her long skirts to walk forward in Yunoki Azuma's direction, the ornate bejeweled crown with crystals a-dangling swing in the balance perfectly to adorn the long black tresses of her shiny silken hair as she does.

Not far behind, bright eyed Manami wraps her smiles in warm wintry capes and earthy tan furs and brown shawls, as she leans against the billiard table to give Kaji Aoi a coy look across it with the ocean of her blue eyes off-setting the ensemble.

Bashful Fuyuumi bustles about in a maidenly lacy girlish fuschia blossom print gown and white apron, her gaze purposely affixed to the floor. The other girls soon urge her to look up to her audience, the shy girl only able to lift her eyes a little, rewarded to meet a quite pleased Shimizu Keiichi's survey of the incoming costume display.

A flutter of poetry in motion of snowy white lacen materials, elegant Mizue flits over, draped in flowing white chiffon and delicate sheer organza fabrics as she spins a filmy pirouette of prima ballerina quality and fluent dancing skill on ballet shoes, until she whirls expressively before an astonished Tsuchiura Ryotaro's shocked and embarrassed face.

Meek Shouji thoroughly steps into her part as a patient and virtuous Spanish girl as she makes her way tentatively through the game room and unintentionally falls to her knees, clutching her chest after a breathless spasm adds pathetic effect to her role playing at Etou Kiriya's impressed feet by the billiard table he was playing twosome at with a gape-mouthed Hihara as partner.

"You okay, Megu?" Etou's concern is interrupted by a loud outcry, though garnering Shouji's small grateful nod back up at him.

"Remember that pose, girl!" Amou's excited voice cries out from a corner cove where Ousaki was helping her adjust her sandal's strap which had come undone, the rambunctious reporter swishing her green fronds over his henna red head rather playfully in recompense.

* * *

The fashion parade continues on with Sweet Mio trotting in, demure in a simple poor Frenchwoman's attire and shawl, holding a lit candle as she can't help but blush her cheek when Shoma Fudou lets out a low wolf whistle as gratified audience. Mio's giggles culminate into an adorable little sneeze that causes her candle to flicker out and her guy to bust out laughing, much to the deficit of his white ball in the corner pocket of the pool table. But seeing his frilly cutie was worth losing a few points.

Stately Nao was her opposite in a gaudy, big bustled, way off-the-shoulder feathered garb as she wrings her wrap in uncomfortably twisting hands, though rolling eyes were resigned to her fate. Now it was Fudou _Yosuke_'s turn to resist the temptation his more plebeian sibling resorted to, his pursing thin lips drawing air through them rather than vulgarly expelling a crude noise. _Magnifique, mon cherie_!

And Kahoko_, ah, Kahoko..._

_Mere words cannot describe you..._

Tsukimori Len could not take his eyes from his red-headed love from the first moment she stepped into the room, adorned in black organza scarves and risque silky skirts as a coquettish Spanish lass.

Gorgeous Kahoko dances into the room, as if possessed by the costume itself—from the huge jewelry in her towering headdress, to the large gold hoop earrings, the overly rouged cheeks and thick eyeshadow, along with a rather high slit up her long leg revealing outfit, made of many layers of see through reds and blacks, and eyecatching georgette fabrics.

Hino Kahoko was a dazzling sight to see, for this flower, bright and vivid and colorful, was the most vibrant bloom in any field-and sure to be the first one picked.

"Kahoko...?" He could barely believe his eyes as this new and exciting creature dances up to him, as Tsukimori is just about able to mouth her name. She twirls a silk handkerchief—bright red of course—right in his face until it sweeps across his astonished lips.

"Do you know who I'm supposed to be, Len?" She asks with a giggle, giddy with the rush of her first acting performance.

"...who you are—?" So many questions accompanied by way too many rising emotions made it difficult for normally calm, cool and collected Tsukimori Len to answer her coherently, so, unaffected by Kahoko's flamboyant charms himself personally, Etou answers for him.

"You're Carmen." He states, never missing a beat as he shoots the last cue ball in the billiards match that he and Kazuki-san were playing, versus Shoma-san and Shinobu-san. Every ball left went flying into the varied pockets with precision aim as he wins the game, that no one but himself was paying attention to anymore, now that there were more interesting diversions in the room.

Kahoko claps her hands together in joy that her acting skills were not in vain.

"And you're Don Jose's pious fiancée, Micaela, from the same opera by Bizet. I'm right, aren't I, Megumi?" He states more than asks again, with a knowing glint in his eye at her, for Carmen was Etou's chosen signature opera piece. Shouji nods, biting an embarrassed lip at his easy way of saying '_fiancée'_ as he puts down his cue to walk up to the girl dressed in corsetted muslins of a Spanish young woman on a vain quest for her true love's affections.

"Don't mess with me. I know my 'Carmen'." Full of himself, Etou haughtily says to the other dumb-founded guys. His gaze then returns to Shouji with glowing eyes and a pleased smirk curling on his left lip side, showing his attentive appreciation of her looks.

"Guess not, wonder-boy. Well, then, who are the rest of us, if you're so smart?" A voice behind him says saucily as Mori Manami dares the brash young man. She preferred sweet, unassuming gentlemen to overconfident genius dream boys. Her eyes dart to Kaji Aoi's, whose own eyes, for the record, were still bugging out at her.

"Hey, 'Carmen' happens to be my area of expertise, not guessing games. Sorry." The insolent boy shrugs, not wanting to be hounded anymore. Besides, he was too busy drinking in Megumi in full costume.

"Ummm..." A small, little voice soon chimes in with a politely raised hand, as if he was still a student in class at school.

"Yes, Shimizu-kun?" Amou answers his raised hand like an amused teacher, although she looked none too teacher-like in her dark maroon cape tossed over her shoulder, covering a pale pink low cut robe.

"If Kaho-senpai is wicked Carmen, and Shouji-san is good Micaela, also from Bizet's 'Carmen', then..." Shimizu turns to address each girl, who smiles or blushes at his scrutinizing gaze. "You are wily Amastre, from Handel's 'Xerxes', Amou-senpai, disguised as a man throughout most of the opera. Miyabi-san is the Parisian daughter, Violetta, from Verdi's 'La Traviata.' Takashina-san is the Chinese princess, Turandot from Puccini's opera of the same name. I think Mori-san is dressed as devoted Loretta from Florence, in Pucchini's 11th Century 'Gianni Schicci'. Takatou-san is poor Mimi from 'La Boheme' also by Pucchini. And I believe Kobayashi-san is bold Musetta, from the same opera." Opera buff Shimizu is right on target as Shoma gives a low whistle directed at his sweet little girl, Mio, and her showy opera co-star, Nao, who glares.

"Now there's an incentive to sit through one of those boring old plays, Aniki." Shoma elbows his brother, whose eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree ever sincehis_ Musetta _entered the room.

"Don't say it. Not a word, Fudou-san. They forced me into this thing." Nao covers her face with one hand and her revealing bust with another in red-faced embarrassment. Yosuke had to check himself from licking his lips as he goes over to her and pets her arm softly.

"Not even to say that you're beautiful in anything you wear, my dear?" He gains a small smile. Her shame of being pushed into this charade was abating in his soft grey-aqua eyes, until the Parisian man adds rather rakishly as he surveys her further: "Or even nothing?"

And now Nao wants to kick his shins from beneath her petticoats.

* * *

"...So that leaves..." Shimizu turns his musically brilliant analytical mind to more endearing subjects, such as his favorite girl and how pretty she looked in the young maid's frock. "Shoko...you look very pretty. Even prettier than the ladies in the picture in my opera book." He unashamedly speaks the truth he felt in his heart. Fuyuumi's bright, pinkish complexion adds sparkle and color to her white, printed dress as he walks up to her. "You are Barbarina, the gardener's daughter from 'The Marriage of Figaro.' I don't think your character had enough air time, though. Mozart wasn't very specific about some side characters, though I believe he should have been when it came to the pure girl that Cherubino really loved, even though he thought he cared for the Countess and the other servants made him wear a dress, and...oh, yes, one more." The encyclopaedic boy begins to drag out the opera's entire plot, his mind sharp about his beloved opera trivia.

But Mizue, dancing on tiptoes in her white chiffon drapery costume, was quite stupefying him. Shimizu stops before her, the cogs of the wheels in his head visibly turning, as his hands almost reach out to touch, and then don't. His mouth opens to speak, but then closes. His brow wrinkles dourly in the conundrum's begging question that boggled his factoid gathering brain to no end.

"Sakimoto-san...Sakimoto-san is..." Shimizu's eyes were literally spinning around in his head, as he tries to place who in the opera world Mizue could be.

"I think you broke him." Knocking lightly on Shimizu's self-destructing head, Shoma laughs at the boy, turning imaginary screws about Shimizu's shaking cranium.

"Great. You picked one that even blew our resident genius' top. Good going, Sakimoto." Tsuchiura grumbles, not wanting to look as  
childishly eager as many of the other drooling guys were upon their respective partners in this silly farce the girls got caught up in.

"Here's a hint." Mizue flaps her arms elegantly, as if she were a—

"...nightingale..." Fuyuumi whispers in Shimizu's ear, not able to take his obvious frustrations at his inability to identify Mizue's opera costume.

"You're playing the nightingale...that's right...the nightingale, as seen in many ballets showcasing Schubert's 'Schwanngessang' that featured his 'Serenade' of the nightingale...Oh...I see now. It's not from an opera, after all." Shimizu looks relieved.

"Just in the nick of time before core meltdown!" Shoma teases the blonde angel/fact spitting machine. Nao 's modesty covering hand slaps the back of Fudou-san's annoying younger brother's head.

"Gee, Sakimoto, couldn't you have chosen something a little less..." Embarrassed at all the attention, Tsuchiura shakes his head sourly at the filmy costume that she wore that only belonged to a ballet, made to Schubert's piece, rather than even a proper opera.

"...poetic?" She tries smiling up at him, hopefully.

"I was going to say 'stupid.'" Tsuchiura blows the whole romantic moment of Mizue's hoped-for effect.

"Well, I like it." A crack in her voice, she goes fluttering off in a huff, her feathers more than ruffled.

"What did I say now?" With a sigh, the soccer jock was clueless yet again. But the other guys were all far too busy with their own affairs to pity him.

"Was that everybody?" Shimizu glances around, eager to guess more operatic personalities.

"Yes, we got it! You're right about every last one of us—of course." Amou says in smiling exasperation.

"Of course." Ousaki repeats with a kind smile.

"Whoa! Is it getting hot in here or is it me?" The loudmouth in Fudou Shoma spits out, grinning at how cute Mio looked in that tattered outfit, despite being fed up with this opera talk and glad that the angel boy's incessant info-share was over.

"So many visions of beauty, I feel blinded by them." Fudou Yosuke, too, was unable to take his gaze from his Nao, tantalizing him just a few feet away.

"But why are you all dressed up? Just for fun? I like it!" Eyes glued to Manami, Kaji questions their antics, though heartily pleased by them.

"Girls just like to dress up in outlandish puffs." Tsuchiura says.

"Outlandish puffs?" Amou, Nao and Sakimoto all ring out together, indignantly, giving the tall boy evil eyes, causing Tsuchiura to feel properly berated as he backs off into a corner.

"Good job once again, _Senpai_." Etou rubs in, under his breath, behind the bigger, older man's back. Tsuchiura shoots him back a dirty look.

"We're helping Amou-san for her college project's magazine with some photos at this castle in opera costume." Hino Kahoko explains her red and black outfit before them excitedly.

"Who knew there'd be some good to come out of that opera claptrap?" Shoma teases as he eyes the shawl wrap that Mio kept pulling up over her shoulders.

"WOW! That's way cool!" Hihara shrieks in a high pitched voice as he pops Miyabi on the head.

"Girls really do know how to have fun!" Kaji cries out with a boisterous giggle, elbowing Tsukimori, who was still entranced by Kahoko's tantalizing figure.

"Yes, indeed." Yunoki agrees, looking Ayano now up and down with approval.

"Very nice costumes, ladies. You each bring a certain degree of _je ne_ _sais quoi_— that indefinable loveliness to your characters." Yosuke compliments, adequately French, as each flattered girl then feels her own partner's eyes landing on her in study, causing their cheeks to redden with pleasure.

"But...the photo shoot won't be complete without one more teensy, weensy thing..." Amou suddenly says in her wheedling way of getting what she wants done.

"And what's that? Can we help you with it?" He always fell for it, too, as naive Ousaki asks pleasantly, imagining the girl was asking for help with moving some chairs or putting up scenery or—

"Oh, yes, you can all help! Thank you **SO** much for offering! Follow me and we'll show you what we need." Amou plots with a big, dastardly grin.

"Why do I get the feeling we are going to regret this?" Shomacomments suspiciously. He seemed to be the only one to see Amou give the other girls a triumphant 'thumbs up' behind their backs.

"In for a penny, in for a pound?" Yosuke answers with a winsome smile upon Nao, as the group of young men follow the lovely ladies to the east wing's dressing rooms...


	50. Chapter 50 -& We Are But Players Upon It

******Chapter 50: **"…**And We Are But Players Upon It"**

"No way. You've **got** to be kidding me. Gimme a break! I already said this was stupid!" Tsuchiura Ryotaro says, proving that Shoma's premonition of the feminine trap of impending danger was true. He blinks his dark golden eyes at what they were proposing in disbelief.

There before him stood Sakimoto Mizue, with a discouraged look on her pursed lips as she holds out something that, no matter how pretty she looked in all her white chiffon and lacy gauziness, he was NOT going to do.

In her proffered hands was a dark green vest, embossed with gold designs, a billowy sleeved ivory shirt, a red sash and a pair of tall, brown leather boots, plus a pair of batting eyes and hopeful smile up at him, ready to forgive his harsh words from before, if he was willing to give in a little...

"Absolutely not! Don't even think about it! I am **ABSOLUTELY NOT **making a fool of myself dressed up in some fairy outfit for some stupid photoshoot!" Tsuchiura tries to ignore his nightingale's long lashed plea.

All the young men were quite astonished as their female counterparts confront them each with their leading man's matching theatre costume, requested to wear, AND to be published in a photo for Amou's magazine.

But Tsuchiura was the most vocally abhorrent to the idea.

"At least you have real pants. You should see mine." Not entirely unaware of exactly how gorgeous a figure his tall, thin cut frame made in any outfit he sported, a smirking Etou Kiriya says to his former senpai under his breath, displaying a pair of white tight spandex pants he was expected to don. His wide, cute mouthcontorts in an adorable, twisting way as he fingers the folded jacket in his hands, playing with the fancy golden epaulettes and high buttoned stiff-necked collar that Shouji Megumi had tentatively placed in his long, thin fingers, complete with 19th century Spanish army required tall leather boots, along with the questionable white spandex 'pants.'

"Come on, guys! This'll be super fun! I've always wanted to cosplay like this!" Every one of the rest of them wanted to burst his bubble, as Hihara Kazuki, effervescent as ever, was always obliging and then some. Yunoki Miyabi claps her hands together as she throws her arms around his already sporting the vest and crooked tuxedo jacket chest to tie his cravat around his neck.

"You've got a sick sense of humor, you know that, Hihara?" Fudou Shoma grumbles, secretly glad though, that his was the most normal looking of the batch. His late 19th century garb of a poor, vagrant struggling poet writer of the bohemian section of France, was almost normal in shirt and, yes, actual pants. Takatou Mio/Mimi from "La Boheme" giggles as he takes his change of clothing with a shrug.

Kobayashi Nao, as enticing singer Musetta, was feeling more than a tad doubtful herself in the showy poof of a French ooh-la-la type of gown, and was even less at peace when her stylish painter in Fudou Yosuke joins her side. Obligingly smooth, with grace and ease, he accepts pieces of the costume she cautiously offers him with a smile, for he knew he was in his element in fancy dress.

"Let's get into our roles seriously, everyone! It will be great fun!" Kaji Aoi enthuses as he spins on his heel, nearly toppling over Mori Manami in his excitement of putting on his own long robe. "We had a theatre actor in our family once upon a time, I think. I remember Dad telling me a lot about him as a kid." Kaji reminisces, half draped in his own grey, fur-lined cloak that Mori was still tugging on him.

"Ah, yes, the black sheep of the Yunoki clan. I couldn't help but admire him, despite what unfavorable things grandmother says of him." Yunoki Azuma gracefully accepts his purple Chinese princely robes from Takashina Ayano, with a mischievous glint in his eye at the thrilling thought of following in the 'black sheep's' footsteps.

_Black or white? Yes, I know..._

Yunoki subconsciously pets Ayano's tiara head, the pure white pearl adorning her perfectly alabaster forehead answering his question.

"Yes, I agree. There's nothing shameful about living a profession that gives so much joy and makes so many people in this world share smiles." Kind Ousaki always had the right word for any situation. He was already donning a Grecian style green leafy crown upon his head that made Handel's King Xerxes come to life in a comical way, until Amou removes his modern glasses from his eyes, to keep him more in character.

"Like Kanagawa-sensei does with his wife..." A bit slow on the uptake, Shimizu Keiichi says with a content smile. He comments idly as Fuyuumi Shoko finishes tying a creamy tie around his neck with a big bow. Shimizu, in his own way, was eager to dress up in the long fancy trimmed coat with frilly lace sleeves, of the boy 'Cherubino' ready to attend Figaro's marriage.

* * *

"What was that?! What does Kana**ZA**wa-sensei do with his wife? Hmmm? Shimizu...?" Raising an insinuating, amused brow that quite went over the innocent boy's head, Kanayan chooses this inimitable moment to peek in the backstage dressing room that he and Caterina were familiar with at the Casa.

"When you act on stage, you make the whole world smile!" Hino 'Carmen' Kahoko comes twirling out of the private dressing room she had disappeared into earlier, flailing her veil and scarves around, bubbling over with a joy that Caterina recognized all too well in the beauty of Kahoko's sweet, true love in full blossom.

And if Kahoko was a beauteous flower in full bloom, here came her dazzling sun right behind her that gave her new-found vibrancy brilliance, as she beckons behind her to come forward with her chiffon red scarf.

Previously quiet, always reserved and stoic Tsukimori Len makes his first appearance on this new stage called acting. He fills both the dashing role and the breathtaking suit of Carmen's bullfighter  
'Escamillo' with the same excellence of skill and presence that he brought to every piece of music his talented violin strings serenaded to his audience—especially if just for the one most precious of all his listeners.

Tsukimori's eyes were only upon his Kahoko's. He was entranced by them enough to join her enthusiastic charade of playacting, as he halts before them all, dramatically thrusting the red cloth cape in the air in his hands that completed Escamillo's attire from Bizet's 'Carmen' that was stunningly adorning Tsukimori's tall, slender form.

From the gold trimmed fringes around Len's dark blue waistcoat with wide armored shoulders, to the flashy gold embossed pants, he cut quite a debonair figure that took all their attention, if not their breath, away.

"Wow...Tsu-ki-mo-ri-kun! Rrrr! Rrrr!" Giving a lioness growl, Amou nearly drops the white cape she was slinging around Persian king Ousaki, as Mori trips over her own fella's furry robe trail to take a good gander at Hino's.

"Tora! Tora! Good-looking! Now there's a man who knows how to please." Mizue gives up trying to convince her own reluctant minstrel, to admire a man who was not too pig-headed to courageously do his girlfriend's bidding, no matter how self-deprecating the outlandish task might seem to most young men.

"It was Kahoko's wish." Tsukimori simply says, garnering respect from many of the other males around the room for his guts as Hino leaves Kanayan's arm to Carmen-ize herself around her beloved bullfighter. I_t's the flame _in her smile up at him that clearly portrayed in her golden eyes whose heart she belonged to, the love who was always on her mind.

* * *

"That's how it's done in storybooks, Ryo. At least by the heroes, anyway." With a half-dreamy, half-disappointed sigh, this is all Mizue says aloud. But it is enough.

Tsuchiura takes one final glance at the blue-haired Mr. Perfection, who always had the darndest way of showing him up and sighs in resignation. "Just give me that stupid fairy suit, Mizue!" The wispy girl in white spins, her draping chiffon sleeves fluttering as she turns back to her big lug with a smile, despite his grumbly frown. After all, he was going through with it, and—he did remember to call her by her first name.

Catching Mizue's eye, Amou gives her a thumbs up from across the room. "I'll go change." He finally lets out a smirk in his nightingale's direction as she passes him the clothing.

"Thanks, Ryo." She wordlessly mouths to his back as he enters the dressing area.

"Yeah, let's get this over with, Aniki." Shoma sighs too, feeling weak against Mio's big crossing eyes as he pops her cute little nose, scooping the costume from her hands, to become an errant French poet. His suave brother follows his lead as he complies with a respectful gentlemanly bow to his own lady. Nao heaves a dreamy sigh full of repressed emotion as he goes.

"Wait up, Shoma! Come on, Yunoki, Kaji-kun! I'll bet you four scoops of ice cream that I'll beat you guys getting in costume." Hihara reverts to being a little kid again, and hardly seems suitable for Verdi's 'Drinking Song' tuxedo and tails, but this was all just play acting, right? And anything was possible on the stage.

"Four scoops of ice cream? You're on!" Rising to the kiddy challenge, sweet toothed Kaji Aoi hikes up his trailing furs with gangly limbs, ungracefully making a dash for the dressing room door. Mori waves his prop scroll in her hands, running after his dashing wake.

"Ohhh! I missed him! Give these to Aoi-san, please, Yunoki-senpai." A red-faced Mori, despite having three brothers at home, stops herchase when she, quite innocently, sees a bit more male skin than propriety allowed from peeping into the dressing room unwittingly.

"My cousin would forget his head, was it not attached." Yunoki chuckles amicably with Kanayan, shaking his own head as he accepts his kin's forgotten costume accessories, when something behind him catches his interested gaze.

"Do you require assistance, Ousaki-senpai? The dressing room is this way." As Ayano finishes handing him his own costume, conscientious Yunoki notices how his former OB (long abandoned by his own girlfriend, as Amou, star photographer, was in full-gear modeimaging angles, at a certain gorgeous bullfighter's posing side, with his drooling Carmen close by) was slowly and hesitantly making his way towards the dressing room. He was actually mistakenly heading towards the exit door, so poorly had Ousaki's eyesight been dimming. One hand was filled with clothing and accessories, while his other pawed the wall, almost like a blind man without his spectacles that Amou had already lifted from him.

"Oh, yes! Bless you, Yunoki-kun. I suppose my eyes have gotten rather lazy without my glasses." Ousaki smiles that warm smile as Yunoki takes his arm, leading him towards the dressing room.

"With all you do for everyone, with no thought of self, no one could ever call _you_ 'lazy,' Ousaki-senpai. Besides, you are royalty, King Xerxes." Yunoki jibes, lifting the crown that had fallen over his eye.

"Nor you, Prince Calaf." The two share a mature, royal laugh together as Yunoki leads the 'blind' man into the maelstrom occurring within the men's dressing room.

* * *

"Ohhhhhh! K-K-Keiichi-kun!" Fuyuumi's little voice softly cries out, as oblivious Shimizu, so enthusiastic about getting in costume, already had begun undressing in public. She covers her modest eyes as he removes his shirt as soon as she hands him his costume. But when, unashamedly unaware, he removes his pants and trips getting into his new ones, she couldn't help but let out a shriek.

"Hoooold on a sec! Not here, Keiichi." Usually impatient Etou patiently steadies the one leg in, one leg out of trousers boy with a firm arm, although he was carrying his own opera get-up in the other.

"Megumi?" His eyes meet hers as their fingers brush one another's when the timid, caramel haired girl in Spanish dress hands her star violinist the remainder of his Don Jose soldier's uniform. Tentative emotions were on the rise since yesterday's concert. They still hadn't had a moment alone since to sort out their relationship yet. Their gaze seems to linger, until Shimizu's stumbling voice calls the wine-haired teen back to reality.

"I think I lost my left shoe..." Rolling his eyes and scooping up the displaced footwear, (by the way, it was the right shoe) from under Shimizu's discarded shirt, all in one fluid motion, Etou turns to flash a look at the perplexed pale aqua print dress maiden.

"I'll see that Keiichi gets dressed for the photoshoot properly, Shoko-san." His cocky smile was sincerely kinder than Fuyuumi ever knew it to be. She had learned to forgive the harsh boy since that first unsavory meeting, years ago. But something alight in his eyes right at this moment, made her truly like him for himself.

"Thank you." Fuyuumi responds without stuttering, with a smile on her face despite her red cheeks, still flaring up at the memory of Shimizu's half-dressed state, which Etou was considerately aiding and propping up as they stagger to the dressing room.

"Wait for me..." Meaningfully, Etou pauses and turns to say to Shouji as she secretly searches for breath, with the soft whisper that made no sense but for two young people being first introduced to first love and all its strange mysteries. _True love this time..._

Her threatening asthma attack is halted by his gentle voice's command, and she finds her eyes wandering to the scene through the opposite door with Fuyuumi, over to the noisy din of camera flashing and voices speaking boisterously, where most of the girls had joined Kahoko to watch their heroine and Tsukimori's photography session out on the nearby stage, with again masculine cloaked Amou deliriously snapping photos of the beautiful pair.

Kahoko/Carmen throws her whole self into her role and drapes herself flirtatiously around her handsome, dashing and courageous bullfighter, Len/Escamillo, to his wide-eyed delight, promising to be his 'prize.'

The thought of seeing Tsukimori Len in fancy costume and dashing poses made the timid girl who once believed herself madly in love with the blue violinist shrink away—not wanting to fall into that hole again. But at a closer glance, as she joins a tugging Fuyuumi to be with the others, Shouji realizes that she need not worry. Even upon fully staring at the handsome figure of Tsukimori Len, her heart did not pound any louder, nor any more intensely than normal.

That is, until someone else enters the stage—of her heart.

The beats which increase in both speed and volume were absolutely due to the stunning young Spanish soldier's fine cut entry onto the stage. Even from where she stood, at the far end, Shouji could feel Etou Kiriya's presence from the moment he silently steps out.

Beautiful hair, gorgeous eyes, slender body—not to mention divine legs—all wrapped in one stunning package of a virile young soldier on a vain quest for love.

Her shallow breath catches in her throat and her ears pound with her heartbeats at the very sight of Etou Kiriya—and she realizes, all at once, that he was the only one she could truly ever love.

Amou begins taking his solo pictures as he strikes a vulnerable pose. His well-acted scene, knowing the opera as well as he did, of holding a wilting flower that Carmen had just tossed was flawless.

But his eyes come to life when Shouji/Micaela joins his beckoning side, this Don Jose finding his heart unable to stray from her adoring eyes pleading up to him as Etou brushes the pinkish flora in his hand over Shouji's shoulder and against her caramel hair as if one softbeauty rightly belonged with the other.

Amou practically squeals at how photogenic the pair was together. But her joy is short lived as, though the first two couples were ideal, the next couples to appear onstage give her quite a bit of a challenging headache.

* * *

An unwilling to play dress-up for the cameras Tsuchiura becomes so frustrated, he plops unhappily on the floor with his unwanted mandolin on his lap, looking rather too sour, until his musical inspiration, his 'nightingale' floats over him, nursing his minstrel's 'Swan Song' in her flowing ballerina-esque dances on _passé_ tiptoe.

"You never told me you could dance ballet, Mizue. How long have you been doing that for?" Tsuchiura scratches his head in wonder of the light steps and fluent symmetry of poetry in motion the _bravura_ girl was enchanting the stage he was seated upon with her _sautée_ techniques.

"Maybe for as long as that piano playing you never mentioned before." Her thin shapely leg _piqué _'s off his brawny shoulder in place of a ballet _barre_ as Mizue answers rather too cattily for a swan, though being more convincing in her role as she dangles and flaunts her chiffon white wares over Ryo's befuddled head. Then she successfully lands a few well-timed, rhythmic_ jeté _leaps back and forth over his long legs as if he were naught but an obstacle for her series of pirouettes.

* * *

Next, Fuyuumi the peasant girl turns to face, in her sweet print dress and bustle, a flat on the ground pageboy Shimizu, for he had to either sit down or sleep, or both, upon waiting too long for their turn on Amou's film extravaganza.

The long wait was due to an over eager Hihara who had accidentally spilled his glass of champagne upon Miyabi. The two consequently had a giggling fit unable to cease their nearly hysterical chuckling as if the champagne were more than merely sparkling grape cider, much to Amou's dismay.

"A little cooperation, please, Hihara-senpai! Miyabi-chan! Time's a-wasting!" Amou's impatience brings the pair of gigglers back to earth, Hihara doing a fair spot of acting as a dapper young man toasting his lady fair, without further incident. Amou breathes a sigh of relief.

However, her relief passes when Kaji Aoi trips on his own robe and falls flat on his face. The bruised but winking man nearly slips again on Hihara's splashed champagne, but Mori catches his fall this time. While they struggle to stay on their feet, he holds up his scroll to the light in amusement, pretending to read some decree that sounded strangely like one of his father's campaign pledges.

Yunoki Azuma, as always, was rather at home in the spotlight. Ever collected, ever elegant, in full Chinese robes and high queue hairstyle, he looked as distinguished as ever in Ayano's adoring eyes that almost couldn't bring herself to gaze upon his beauty as he sits complacently at her stunning feet, a little bored despite the girl's breathtaking golden dragon attire and high ornate royal crown.

"Oh, well!" Amou snorts, shrugs her shoulders, and moves on gleefully to her next 'victims.'

* * *

"Can we get this over with? These heels are way too tight. My feet are killing me!" Nao, accustomed to flats or sneakers, complains of her discomfort, as Yosuke gentlemanly leads her to the stage.

"Do you wish me to carry you the rest of the way, my dear?" Yosuke/Marcello whispers down to her, flirtatiously, as his eyes wander down to the displayed lower leg and shapely ankle that Nao was now massaging.

"N-no, I'll be fiiiii—nnnee! Yosuke! Put me down! This is so embarrassing!" Nao starts pounding on her gracious 'rescuer's' chest as he lifts her easily in his arms.

"But you're as light as a feather, my dear, and just as soft." The older man caresses his cheek to hers, and Nao was unable to help herself from looking up at him dreamily for a few seconds before recovering her senses. Once she shakes herself awake, turning forward with a wary glance backwards, Nao gives the back of his head a punishing whack that resounds across the empty stage.

_SNAP!_

Amou deems the confrontational, yet romantic scene perfect for independent Musetta and her erstwhile bold painter.

* * *

After watching his brother and that sergeant Kobayashi Nao pose together for that pushy reporter and her silly paper, making complete fools of themselves by looking all 'lovey-dovey' even after the girl just assaulted Yosuke, Shoma was doubtful. Sure, he could stand on a stage with his trusty guitar in hand, but this was something different.

_Heck with this_! He didn't like being in costume since was a kid—and this was way worse.

Although, on second thought, seeing Tsuchiura nearly trampled by his flighty dancing ballerina bird, Hihara slipping and sliding on fake champagne and Kaji fall on his spoiled brat face almost twice, was worth every second of this madness. Shoma was having too darn much fun laughing at everyone else's expense, sitting on the side wings of the stage, quietly unobserved, with Mio kicking her legs to and fro over the edge as the pair wait for their turn at bat.

"That, and seeing you in that dress, I guess." Shoma honestly comments to his own stray thoughts aloud. He felt hot again, blaming it upon the long tailed coat and stiff necked costume as Mio blushes under his intense gaze, her little stick legs kicking in the air furiously.

"Here, lets get that thing blazing." Holding his hand out for her to take as he stands them both to their feet on the stage, Shoma mans the lighter provided earlier. And when the windy auditorium blows out Mio's candle prop yet again, he shields both the girl and her flickering candlewick with his tall body until it's properly lit.

"Sho-chan..." She whispers, unaccustomed to his romantic attention, biting her lip, as Amou flutters about setting their pose up together.

"Hold that candle out further, Mio-chan! And quit that fidgeting or you'll drop it and burn the whole place down! Put your hands on her shoulder, Fudou-senpai. Nah…Just extend your right hand to the camera instead. There! That's good! Now, look up!"

"Bossy, bossy. Photoshoots suck." Shoma murmurs beneath his uncomfortable starch collared breath. Letting out some steam, his untapped left appendage swiftly reaches up and around to tickle the short hairs on the back of Mio's tense neck, the tease turning into a tender massage to ease the stiffness away.

Mio's hand shoots up to her neck, for this was the very first time the older boy had ever touched her with more than a playful pat or friendly tap. She never felt happier in her life.

_FLASH! _

"That was perfect, Mio-chan! Now, Fudou-senpai, Let's try one more pose! Cradle Mimi in your arms! Remember, she's gonna die by the end of the opera, so look like you mean it!"

Shoma does as instructed without thinking twice, boldly pulling Mio to him as of holding onto her tiny form for dear life—

—And rather enjoying the urge to hug even tighter.

Amou had no idea how much timid Mio's first physical contacts with Fudou-senpai, leaning her head to his strong chest was doing something to her heart, or to his heretofore unaware one, as hand in hand, they walk away—their shoot finished, successful in more ways than Amou imagined.

* * *

Busily counting her hundreds of shots, Amou Nami rifles through her bag for yet another roll of film.

"Great! That's all my couples then...except..." Amou begins to say, after a quick scan, having a feeling she was missing someone...

"For us, my queen?" Ousaki Shinobu had patiently waited until his Persian flower whose beauty could not hide forever beneath thatman's cloak, had finished her musing with her beloved camera and was ready to be in front of its lenses herself.

"Oh, right! That's who's missing! **US**! I almost forgot...We count as a couple, too..." Amou, for the first time in her fast paced go-getter loudly flamboyant life, feels...a bit shy, to have said something she just said, right to this man's face.

"Yes, we are, Nami-san. This story of yours is filled with our memories together, too." Ousaki shields his brow as the setting sun streaks through the stained glass windows, flooding the stage with a strange, pure light. Amou snaps that quick picture of him as she marvels at how good-looking he was, with or without the glasses—a feat that none but the most beautiful could claim.

Feeling so at ease with him, despite being some years younger, Amou Nami was absolutely certain of his feelings for her. He understood her life's passion and patiently was willing to wait while she achieved it . He represented everything good and kind about the world. She dashes over to him and squeezes his hand, causing his wreath of olive leaves to fall over his silky bangs yet again as he seriously gazes up at her.

Amou, with love in her eyes, in all ancient attire, gently pushes the leaves up along with some tufts of his hair. 'King' Ousaki halts the other retreating hand and kisses it to his lips.

"Hark, my King!" Amou teases, theatrically crossing the stage and raising her hand high to the rafters in his exaltation with the purposely corny line, causing Ousaki to laugh when unexpectedly—

_FLASH!_

Amou is startled as the familiar camera shutter clicks and flashes upon her on the receiving end for once instead. She glances up quickly, miffed at who dared to touch her 'partner', only to see her beloved camera magically floating in the air, with not a soul to be found holding it. Believing the two of them were alone on the stage, Amou is mystified as she glances to and fro.

"Who?! Who did that?!" She begins to ask in shocked excitement, when the faint outline of a yellow and sky blue figure glitters back into nothingness—and the camera floats back down to the table.

"Don'cha know?!" The apparition taunts her with a gleeful giggle.

Amou, just about vaguely hears a high pitched voice as it fades away. Her quick reporter's mind all at once knew it was that Fata she was always in search of. The one named 'Lili' who had changed the lives of so many of her friends at SeisoAcademy. The magical creature who had brought Hino Kahoko into the world of music and in so doing, she brought beautiful music back to the world.

"It must be!" At first startled, then certain, seeing the truth in Ousaki's gentle eyes beaming back at her, Amou smiles.

_Into my world..._

Amou is smart enough to realize that it was the music in Ousaki Shinobu's utterly good soul that was perhaps the reason she could glimpse Lili for a few seconds—through his love of music, shared through his love for her, and her love for him in return.

As their bond deepens even further, perhaps someday Amou Nami could see the Fata fairies again, but all the more clearly, through the magical eyes of love amidst golden sparkles...


	51. Chapter 51 - Deep Thought

**Chapter 51:** "**Golden ****Phoenix****"**

The boisterous afternoon spent inside the castle walls was quite contrasted by the outside's more reflective atmosphere. Kira Akihiko had opted out of whatever youthful goings-on was being staged in the palace's generous interior wings, preferring to escape to the sanity of the peaceful outdoors instead. Tsuzuki Mari, as always agreeing with Kira's 'adult mood', accompanied Kanayan and Caterina on their tour of the resplendent gardens and grounds that the operatic couple was very familiar with.

After all, Caterina's royal friends' summer home made quite a romantic getaway from Vienna's vibrant opera spotlight on far too many weekends for either the soprano or her tenor to count. But there was a special air of romance to the entire fairytale magical palace amidst all its majestic surroundings that Kanazawa Hiroto could account for first-hand.

"_Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart._.._"_ The opera tenor breaks out in song, vocalizing the somewhat classically tongue-in-cheek tune.

"Isn't that right, Lili?" His arm around his wife's elegant shoulders, Kanayan pauses his crooning to direct his bemused gaze backwards to where a certain tiny figure was silently stalking the quartet as they lackadaisically stroll the grounds, much to Kira's chagrin.

Well, suspiciously a-flutter anyway.

"Aww! I thought I was being real quiet and surreptitious, you know! How did you know I was there, Kanazawa Hiroto, you know!?" The fairy who did indeed love fairy tales like a destined violin romance every now and then, makes himself amply visible before the group.

"I'm a teacher. I've got eyes in the back of my head~_you know_?" The teasing educator chortles with the extra perceptional skill that he always believed he possessed, mimicking the Fata, though he could only see Lili again recently now that his reacquainted love for music returned entirely to his soul.

"Awwwww!" Lili grumbles, stomping a tiny foot in the thin air he was magically standing upon, roiled that Kanayan was ridiculing him.

"Hiro, be kind to the wee thing. He's far from his home." Caterina, also seeing the Fata through mutual eyes of love for music, pats Lili on his golden head with her cooing, lilting strains. Lili's angry face turns to a smile like melting butter at the soprano's voice full of empathy for him.

"No it's not. Austria** is** its birthplace, **not** Japan. After all, it's only a _gaikokujin_ there. It is Europe where the Fatas were born and it is Europe where the Fatas should remain."

It was a well-known sentiment that Kira Akihiko wished to be rid of the despised magical creature that haunted a great portion of the life of SeisoAcademy's heir to the Fata's blessing since his youth. Especially after this week's sleepless torment of Lili and his kin on the poor man, his patience with the mystic creature was wearing thin.

But were Kira's words just now for reasons other than his own discomfort?

"Kira Akihiko! You're so mean, you know! I have feelings too, you know!" Lili, shocked and hurt simultaneously, flies to Caterina's comforting arms and offered warm soft chest as she glares at Akihiko-kun over Lili's maligned petted head.

"Poor sweet little thing." Caterina pats the tiny fairy on its winged back with sympathy as she gives her husband a plaintive look to confront his bad mouthing friend.

"Now, Kira, that is a little harsh." Kanayan says, siding with Lili.

"No, it's not. I am serious. Austria is its home where my grandfather found it. The land of music is where a musical Fata belongs, with its family, with the other Fata. Not with humans." Kira defends his stance rationally, logically. The two women gaze first at Lili, then at the cool faced Director, then at Kanayan for his reaction on Kira's profound statement.

"I thought we meant something to each other, you know! I watched you grow up, you know! After all I did for you over the years, you know! You don't need me, you know? I don't need you, you know!" Lili's small voice begins to whine, pouting, looking up at the transgressor with a hurt expression clouding his face. But Kira's imperious gaze never wavers.

"FINE! KIRA AKIHIKO! FINE, YOU KNOW!" Tearfully, Lili bursts out furiously, zipping right up to Kira's face and shaking a pair of little fists right under the man's nose. After a few seconds of trembling rage, the Fata takes off at rocket speed, disappearing into the wooded distance.

"Why'd you go and do that for, Kira?" Kanayan asks his bewildering best friend, feeling pretty bad for the annoying little bugger that had high tailed it out of there.

Caterina gives Kira a dirty look before dashing off in the direction Lili went. Kanayan, with pursed lips, shakes his head at Kira and takes off with long strides after his tenderhearted blonde beauty.

That left just Kira Akihiko and Tsuzuki Mari standing in the autumn breathtaking sun-setting garden alone, as a cool wind blows about them in the quiet.

"Director?" Tsuzuki asks, perplexed, for she believed before this that Kira cared for the Fata in some inexplicable deep way. He was attached to Lili since his birth, and music bonded the two of them together. Was_ her_ bond forged by Lili with Kira being rejected, too? Mari is suddenly uncertain of something she thought was blossoming... Something she hoped was happening between them...

"It's for the best." Is all Kira says in a detached tone that anyone else would've thought cold and unfeeling. But Mari _was_ certain she knew him better through their bond, through her growing feelings for him. She sensed the selfless resigned look in his eye that tried unsuccessfully to divert from her intent gaze.

"You're really a kind person, Kira Akihiko." Mari could now clearly see that he was doing it for Lili's sake, that his harsh words before were for reasons other than his own comfort or wishes. Knowing how much Kira's own family meant to him, Mari knew Kira could see how much Lili missed his family here on the continent of his birth, how much he loved Austria, how much more the fairy sparkled here with the beauty of music playing upon the very air. She also knew that the Fata's eternal gratitude to Seiso's founder would always make a sincere decision to stay on here in Austria or return to Japan with them, impossible. That is, unless Lili's blessing was released from the music school of a faraway land by his hero's grandson...

"You're giving Lili the freedom to choose without restraints. You do care."

Mari moves closer to Kira and stands on her high-heeled tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on his surprised cheek, which turns a crimson shade of red soon thereafter.

"You have always had my respect, Director, and now my..." Mari trails off, her own cheeks shading with the realization in her own closed heart that it was finally ready to open and let someone else in...her revitalized spirit unashamed of the pure emotion...

And in this moment, Kira Akihiko felt the same exact way, the two restrained strict people finding new strength in one another's reawakening of their stagnant existances.

He leads the dark haired woman into a nearby gazebo at the garden's edge, sitting them her down as he collects his words carefully.

"Apart from Miya, you're the only other person who has ever completely understood me, Mari." Kira whispers with as much emotion as he shown in years, loosening the stranglehold his stiff tie represented, as irretrievable memories of youth pass before his eyes of another young woman who believed in him even when no one else would, could or should.

As his eyes finally meet hers, Kira sees a dazzling quiet glow of sunlight break through the dark cloud that had always shaded over Tsuzuki Mari's pure beauty. The uneasy feeling he always had before whenever he was around women—especially her— suddenly melts away as her soft smile of total belief and keen perception reaches into his sad broken heart where solitary music had been playing restlessly for years.

There, Mari glimpses his regretful memories of his own dearest family lost, the vulnerability of which unseen before was now clear in his eyes. In the mirrors of one's soulful reflection, she finds courage to take hold of his hand with her refined manicured ones, looking directly into his inner gaze, where the entire world becomes clearer to her by what she sees in them.

_Is that love I see in your eyes? Or is it just a reflection of mine there? Can love be chasing me this time? Is this where I was meant to be?_

Kira glances down at Mari's pale white hand that delicately wraps his large dark one around it and he feels his rising heart pound in a new unexpected way. It was as if he was suddenly transformed by the realization of this awakened feeling that someone believed in him again, wanted to be close to him again, wanted to love him again, despite himself.

Suddenly taking Mari's graceful form in his arms, Kira allows his disciplined self to let go for the first time in his adult life, he feeling reborn again as he gives to her in his kiss the dreams of a tomorrow that both of their broken hearts hitherto believed had abandoned them of any bereft joy left for their empty and rejected lives.

And as the sun begins sinking low behind the still Alpine mountain peaks, a spying pair of tear stained eyes blink back the hot drops of anger and sorrow in exchange for some tears of gratitude and pride in this most difficult to know human who would always hold a special place in his enchanted fairy heart. A heart that now contentedly hums sonnets of love as he sprinkles some magical fairy dust over the scene of the new call of love, awash in cherished dreams.

As the tentative couple take a seat in the nearby gazebo, Mari leans against the crook of Kira's out stretched arm, neither of them feeling the chill outside the warm winds now blowing in their hearts.

"Tsuzuki Mari, I know now I am in love with you." Kira Akihiko's heartfelt whisper was just about audible,all the closed doors openiing.

But from where he was hovering above the gazebo, Lili overheard the declaration as clear as melodic notes chiming a perfect chord, he  
never imagining this cold man truly cared for him nor could discover the beauty of the music love adds to this world, the miracle fulfilled.

And Mari felt it too, as she closes her eyes against Kira's chest. The man realizes all he had been missing out on dwelling within the younger woman's eyes, and he smiles down at her, leaning a cheek to her dark brown curls.

And his forgotten heart yearns again, his heart full of past memories, possessed now future dreams of tomorrow, brought back from the ashes of his life, like the legendary Phoenix rising again in both their weary hearts, as Lili envelops the world about the pristine gazebo with enchanted golden sparkles for his Seiso sparring partner's  
wondrous flight of the Golden Phoenix...


	52. Chapter 52 - Second Wind

**Chapter 52: "Second Wind"**

_O__n the grounds of Swoboda Villa at sunset..._

"Cat! Are you okay?!" Kanayan worriedly cries out as he races off to where his wife was kneeling on the ground ahead of them, not twenty yards from where they started. Sure, she was over dressed in her long lavender gown and furs for any sprinting like a young gazelle, but he knew that his Dutch beauty was in_ very_ good physical condition.

"Did you trip? Is there a snake or something? Are you hurt?" Anxiety speaks in the man's words, it strangely interesting to see the once lazy man come to life, Kanayan diving to kneel at his lady love's feet in amazing record time.

"I am _huff, huff_ fine,_ huff_ my sweet." Caterina struggles to puff out the words of assurance, easing with a comforting smile to his fearful face, as she places a hand on his gaunt cheek.

"The wind just _huff_ was knocked out of me._ huff_ Please don't worry." She pats his brow-creased worried face.

"Hee hee, we are just not as young as we used to be, eh, Hiro? I remember running three times zat distance in my youth!_" cough _

She laughs self-deprecatingly at herself with a comical jab at her ripe old age of five and thirty.

"Mostly to get away from me! Ha ha! I remember how fast you could be when you wanted to, you teasing little vixen!" Kanayan returns the joke, patting her red cheek, though worry lines remained on his face.

"Are you really alright, Cat?" He says in all seriousness, stroking her arm as he stands her to her feet. "You have been a bit tired lately. Maybe you've been working too hard..." Her husband ponders his last sentence of concern quietly beneath his breath.

"Oh yes! I am right as rain now! Second wind back already!" She pops her hubby on the nose, then rubs the crinkles from his forehead.

"Now, back to tracking down that poor fairy!" Caterina announces energetically, her breath fully returned.

"Huh? Oh, right, Lili." Kanayan, in his consternation of her health, had forgotten the whole reason the pair of 'old fogies' were dashing about the Casa's grounds like a pair of teenyboppers. His eyes scan the area for any sign of that annoying critter's blinking light up in the air, when he catches sight of that selfsame sparkling pair of wings fluttering back in near where they started, sprinkling his fairy dust down on a certain gazebo not so far away—

"Whoa. Guess Lili decided to forgive Kira." Kanayan says  
mysteriously, with a touch of astonished bewilderment in his voice at this most interesting new development.

"Why would Lili do that, Hiro?" Caterina gathers up her slightly muddy skirts she was just dusting off to follow her husband's quizzically surprised gaze.

"Pity for the poor man getting in trouble—in a big way. Careful Kira. That's how they hook you..." Kanayan murmurs to his former kohai with an experienced air.

"Hmm? Hook? What English is zis, please?" Confused by his words, Caterina's eyes focus at the faraway picturesque scene of the figure of a dark man leaning over and kissing a similarly dark young woman's silhouette rather passionately within the gazebo. There Lili was floating above, sprinkling fairy dust down upon them both.

"Oh! Hiro! You are naughty! Hooked indeed! Such a thing to say, in any language!" His wife scolds him in hushed tones with a punishing smack in the arm as she comprehends the situation better.

"Well, it's true!" He chuckles, waving his ring finger in her face.

"Hush! They might see us vatching!" Caterina pulls her irreverent partner aside behind a bush.

"So?""So?! How would you like it if your best friend vas vatching us doing...?" She trails off for loss of the English-translated word.

"Watching us doing 'what'?" Kanayan teases, an evil glint in his eyes as he twirls his necklace in his fingers coyly.

"You know, silly man." She smiles that gorgeous smile up at him in feigned modestly, seeing Kira lead Mari to the nearby gazebo by the hand after they finally part lips, out of the corner of her eye .

"Oh! You mean—this?" Kanayan, whether in competition with his former kohai or not, suddenly grabs hold of his wife kneeling at his covertly spying side, and plants a luxiuriously intense kiss on her surprised open wispy mouth.

After he finally relents, the European woman finds herself huffing furiously for breath again, but this time she knew who to blame. (_Not that she didn't know who to blame before_.)

"Is it possible_ huff _for a woman_ huff_ to get back her third wind?_ huff _You bad boy." She smacks him yet again with one end of her fur shawl muff.

"Yes, my dear. I am admonished amply. Forgive my impetuous romantic nature, but it must be in the air, as you can see." Kanayan smiles, motioning his head towards the 'gazebo of love' as he helps his wife to her breathless feet, yet again.

"Yes, I know, I have heard that fairy dust has that effect. Or perhaps it is just the fault of ze sunset?" Caterina gives one final glance back, but she wasn't able to see the pair anymore within the gazebo's interior for all the fairy dust aplenty fluttering down in the setting  
orangey skies.

"Shall we go back into our weekend palace, my Queen, to see if the kids have burnt down the whole theater yet? Or at the very least to see what scrumptious dinner awaits us?" Kanayan asks, taking Caterina's gloved white hand into his and kissing the back of it, quite gentlemanly now, proving to be quite a quick change actor indeed.

"As you wish, my lord." The two share a laugh and hug. Caterina smiles and lets him lead her down the path, secretly grateful for the stable support of his strong arm in the falling early dusk and late autumn winds of this European fantasy world she'd invited everyone to experience for themselves.

* * *

When Kanayan and Caterina enter Casa Austria's lavish front entrance foyer, they are surprised to find five of the Seiso boys seated on a fancy red settee, some somewhat lounging, others casually plopped in the floor, but all five dolled up in fancy suits and seeming to be patiently waiting for something.

"Hey, Kanayan! We thought you'd never get here! Dinner's being held up because of you guys!"

Okay, maybe not all were so patient, as good-natured Hihara Kazuki comes bounding up from where he was carelessly leaning over the couch in a maroon dinner jacket to energetically stand before and berate his old 'Teach' for **his **tardiness.

"What's up? And why are you five sitting there like ducks in a row?" Kanayan teases as he surveys how the group de-transformed from the opera stage costumes he'd seen them in some hours before, back into normal suits. Well, Tsukimori was in a normal black suit and crimson tie, Tsuchiura in gray-green though opting out of the tie altogether, Yunoki in a dark turtleneck with a white sport jacket, leaving Shimizu, well, the boy on the floor in tall mahogany boots and a big pinkish girlie ribbon in place of a customary necktie, always made a fashion statement that spoke for itself in originality.

"**I** think you all look very dashing in your dinner jackets, like fine young gentlemen should." Caterina interjects, especially when Etou, Kaji, Shoma, and Yosuke come sauntering into the room, adding their tall handsome charm to the already pretty boy display.

"Thank you, ma'am." Kaji Aoi politely dons his black tuxedo before her, he then giving the other guys a big thumbs up and even bigger bright grin.

"And** this** all means?" Kanayan asks, putting two clumsy big thumbs up in the air with the question and mimicked goofy smile, his eyes landing on Etou Kiriya, the boy nearest to him, now perched precariously on the loveseat's arm across from the lavender haired opera sensation.

Etou was just about to open his mouth to answer when Kaji nearly has heart failure, flailing his awkward arms about and mouthing unknown warnings, much to the younger, more level-headed male's chagrin.

"Who can say?" Dismissively, Etou sighs and shrugs as he rolls his eyes at this stupid farce that Prince Aoi-san always had a way of duping everyone into following his airhead lead.

Big brother Yosuke gives Big mouth Shoma, who was on the verge of speaking his own mind, a warning glance, that serves the purpose enough, too, its low decibels snapping shut before stepping in it.

"O~kay." Kanayan smiles, enjoying a good mystery himself every now and then, and just lets it go.

"I'm not your teacher anymore, so you can keep secrets from me, now. Heck! You could even keep them when I was! Discipline was never my strong point, I s'pose" With a big familiar grin, Kanayan ruffles Hihara's scruffy head just like the old days.

"Oh, we don't have to keep it a secret from you, Kanayana-sensei. We were just setting up a surprise for the girls after dinner with a con—" Shimizu, as always, gets Kanazawa-sensei's name mixed up again as he slowly almost spills the beans, despite all of Kaji, Hihara, and even Yunoki's waving hands, shaking heads and halting eyes in his oblivious direction. So that left it to fast thinking Tsuchiura, who  
always put his money where his mouth is, literally this time.

The big green man leans straight over Tsukimori, seated unawares on the couch between, when the bigger jock slaps a quieting hand over the tattletale Shimizu Keiichi's running off mouth where the boy was hugging his knees innocently on the floor. Before he could finish spilling the secret, Tsuchiura, Hihara, Kaji, Yunoki and Yosuke all give Kanayan and Caterina simultaneous pasty smiles and nervous chuckles while Etou continues to roll his eyes at the whole affair. Shoma bursts out laughing as poor Tsukimori Len is quite squished under Tsuchiura's blundering elbow and arm still reaching over to smother Shimizu.

"You're going to kill Keiichi, Tsuchiura-senpai." Drolly offhand as always, Etou comments in a matter-of-fact voice when Shimizu's eyes start to droop, his head soon following, even as Tsuchiura quickly removes his palm from covering the blonde boy's mouth in response.

"Whoops." Tsuchiura guiltily says as Tsukimori turns to Shimizu and starts shaking his already wobbly shoulders awake.

"You really did it this time, Muscles." Shoma teases the athletic young man, as Tsuchiura colors with a guilty conscience.

"Shimizu? You still kicking?" Concerned, Tsuchiura inquires of the little guy with a short prayer, touching his shoulder gently.

"Tsuchiura-senpai?" His brilliant blue eyes pop open slowly. "Is it time for dinner? I think I'm hungry." He says, blissfully unaware of coming short of suffocation mere moments ago.

"Whoo! That's a relief!" Kaji and Hihara call out in sighed excitable sync, giving each other a high five.

"Well, you're in luck then, Shimizu-kun. I believe our young ladies are ready for their escorts to the dining room." Proper Yunoki, ever ready to notice a lady waiting, is the first to stand and enter the hall where he bows gentlemanly to his long indigo and gold trimmed dressed Ayano, and elegantly offers her his arm with a graceful  
flourish. He then walks her to the double door dining area where a footman awaited them, Yunoki moving with all the grace and fluidity that the other eight boys either envied or admired in some way.

Although, well versed in his own self-trained high class manners, another gentleman steps to the plate. Nao, in an unassuming yet chic cocoa brown empire waist dress and matching tan shawl, is touched by Fudou Yosuke's tastefully refined way of drawing her glance nearer to him as he follows Yunoki's lead with a bow in his equally handsome and color coordinating brown and tan formal dinner jacket, complete with his signature, ever present orangey to golden hues fade out silk scarf that he flings about his neck with gusto before offering her his suave arm with suave ladies man flair.

"May I be so fortunate as to display your beauty upon my arm tonight, my dearest mon cherie?"

How could any girl in her right mind refuse an offer like that? Nao chuckles under her mind-numbed breath at his sophisticated chatter.

"Come on, Shimizu." Tsuchiura, feeling some guilt for his near murder victim seconds ago, helps the boy sitting on the floor to his feet. The brawnier big man aids the weak wobbly kneed character to make it across the room and into the hall to greet the shy girl he was to escort to dinner. In reality, Fuyuumi Shoko was more escort to him, though she never did mind.

Fuyuumi, in her pale aqua floral print party dress, takes over Tsuchiura's role of holding the slothenly boy up long enough to get him to his dinner seat.

Once Shimizu is deposited safely, Tsuchiura turns to gaze upon Mizue in her scarved green mini dress. Never accustomed to the niceties for such social gatherings, Tsuchiura Ryotaro was like a bull in a china shop. He, instead of gentlemanly bowing before her as Yunoki did, nor offering his complementing arm as Yosuke did, simply clears his throat and lunks up to her, putting a thumb up in the air towards the dining room saying: "Let's go." He sticks his hands in his pockets in the embarrassment of not knowing what else to do with them.

Mizue smiles, long ago realizing by now that this was as good as it was going to get.

_At least he managed to recognize me out of the crowd. _She thinks with a small wry smile, walking with her head held high into the dining room behind her big tall lug's lead.

Fudou Shoma was ready and rearing to go by now. Whether it be more from hunger or impatience, it mattered not. He dashes out into the hall and finds Mio in her navy blue sleeveless little frock in a fit of uncontrollable giggles. The tall young man with rather unkempt hair, messy untucked shirt and tie precariously hanging about his unbuttoned neck, barrels up to her and delivers a somewhat ridiculing mixture of bows and hand flourishes, irreverently mocking those who went before him and their vain attempts at socially acceptable machinations, much to Mio's delight.

"Chow time, Babe." Tugging her along for the ride, brash Shoma grabs her hand tightly and squeezes it as they both laugh their way into the dining room.

Catching Shoma's bold vibrancy alight in the no longer uncomfortable atmosphere, Hihara and Kaji decide to add their own. Flashing Kanayan a smile behind his back, Hihara nearly crashes into Kaji, both eager to get to their girls (not to mention dinner, in that order) awaiting their arrival at the foot of the ornate staircase like some kind of beauty pageant. Voluptuous aqua mermaid Mori Manami and adorably bubbly cutie Yunoki Miyabi certainly fit the bill as beauties for any competition, waiting their turn in the spotlight to be chosen.

"Is this another four scoop ice cream race wager, boys?" Mori teases when the pair of eager beavers race up before them. Hihara cocks his innocent head, not quite getting her intonation. But Kaji did, knowing Mori-san's subtle innuendo quite well by now. Quite well indeed.

"But this prize is even sweeter." He flirts right back, kissing Mori's hand to his lips before slipping it under his arm and escorting her in, leaving Hihara with a dropped jaw behind in the proverbial dust.

Hihara looks at Miyabi, not knowing what she expected of him, nor what to do in this situation really, even if she did. Polite society and fancy eateries weren't really his thing—his family restaurant on 'Four-course Fridays' was about high class as his small world permitted.

And that suited Yunoki Miyabi just fine, she tossing propriety to the wind along with her elegant upbringing. Though growing up with the same courteous social graces as her elder brothers under their fearsome grandmother's beckoning, Miyabi was willing to alter them to fit in with her Kazuki's world, even as he looks so cutely nervous at her right now.

"Come on, Kazuki-san! I'm starving!" Miyabi giggles, grabbing his sweaty palm in hers, and swinging it carefree as they bring sunshine together into the room with her bright orange filmy dress and bouncy plummy curls complemented by his deep red suit and great big smile.

* * *

"After you, Senpai." Back in the sitting room, Etou Kiriya was learning something of social graces himself, the rude, once discourteous boy of yesteryear, maturing by leaps and bounds on this European excursion. Tsukimori Len exchanges an enlightened look with Kanayan before he leaves the mirror he was adjusting his own tie at (that Tsuchiura's elbow had jostled into a mess before) to stand before the violinist teen who once considered Len his greatest rival.

"Kahoko's waiting." Etou gives his signature crooked smile, to which Tsukimori nods.

"And a lady should never be kept waiting long." Etou expounds with some deeper meaning in his wandering eye.

"Thank you." Len wonders at the smiling younger violinist's sudden expertise on romance, but he puts it out of his mind the moment he steps into the castle's breezeway.

"I don't ever intend to_..."_ Etou says under his breath to himself more than anyone else, his eyes peering out into the hall upon one of the two girls left waiting upon the staircase. Shouji Megumi's eyes too were reaching across the room to Etou's even as she watches Tsukimori Len appear, to Hino Kahoko's heart skipping joy.

And his Kahoko dazzles him yet again, her hair swept up just so, though one persistently loose strand of red the once stoic, withdrawn Tsukimori instinctively fingers, tenderly smoothing it back into place as he comes up from his fine etiqutte bow to meet her adoring eyes.

The pure love that passed between Hino Kahoko's and Tsukimori Len's eyes was something almost palpable that set them apart from any other couple that passed this way before. Tsukimori's mannered gentlemanly offered arm is lovingly claimed by blue gowned beauty as they travel arm in arm to the dining room awaiting their arrival.

"Are you okay, Etou?" Kanayan asks, sensing some deep upheaval going on in the young man's heart as the former teacher watches Etou's strangely out of it, dazed gaze yet again travel into the hallway as the final young lady waits for him with a longing on her face that made her feelings for him obvious to all.

"Oh, yes, decidedly." The wine-haired boy of sixteen was as tall as his list of accomplishments was replete, his playing as deep as his voice had grown mature, that Kanayan almost forgot his youthful years until he remembered his own cherished past, that included Kira Miya and Akihiko, her once ambitious younger brother who Etou Kiriya so reminded him of, arrogant so much so in attitude, resembled even in looks somewhat now that Kanayan almost could have mixed up this mature young violinist with a certain kohai of yesteryear, every now and then...

"May I?" Calling Kanayan out of his reverie, as spontaneously on the spur of the moment, Etou suddenly turns to a vase on the mirrored desk filled with fresh flowers in full bloom and he fingers one especially vibrant specimen, asking permission to take with his expressive eyes.

"Certainly, you may." Caterina, impressed, smiles at the romantic gesture. She, too, was not able to think of this tall handsome youth who knew his own mind, and heart too it seemed, as a child anymore.

"Oh, here, you'll need this." Caterina removes the pin from her own corsage of a white and lavender flower spray that her handsome beau had bestowed upon his lady love, as he always does every morning, passing the pin to the romantic youth with her gratified blessing.

Etou quickly snaps off the deepest, reddest bloom, his musical fingers that should be well cared for, undaunted by the prickly thorns that he deftly removes at record speed, hands fearlessly running down the stem to double check before he was to present this beautiful crimson rose to Shouji Megumi, the last young lady awaiting her escort.

Shouji's breath is taken away again, as the overwhelmed girl drinks in the red rose's lovely rich scent when Kiriya boldly affixes the bloom upon her heaving bosom with a serious look in his eye, standing beneath her on the steps like the hero in a romance novel.

"How did you know I love red roses, Kiriya?" She whispers, almost in tears at his thoughtfulness.

"Because they suit you perfectly, Megumi.." Etou answers honestly as the back of his hand brushes across the soft petals of her burgundy wine dress, gazing at her fervently all the while. Shouji blushes under his stare as he offers her his arm that she links with a trembling hand. His long gorgeous chin presses against her softness as he pauses on their journey to the dining room to breathe in its pervading gentle scent as if suddenly overcome by it.

"Velvety and sweet." Etou murmurs, his eyes intensely all consuming in hers, causing Shouji's blushing face to be in competition with the crimson flower upon her now pounding chest.

The final pair off, and the amused audience of Kanayan and his wife were soon behind. Ousaki Shinobu and Amou Nami breathlessly rush right in behind them, exchanging conspiratorial glances with the other boys.

Dinner was just about to begin when the Director and Tsuzuki-san finally arrive, a few eyebrows shooting up at the flustered state both 'adults' were in, especially when Tsuzuki Mari pauses in the breezeway to straighten Kira's mussed tie and he uncharacteristically smiles back down at her warmly.

Obviously deliriously pleased with her beloved Director, the quiet woman shyly smiles across the table all throughout the meal like a lovesick schoolgirl again, garnering more than a few titters from the peanut gallery around the dining table from the Seiso students when their esteemed Director's eyes meet Mari's significantly...


	53. Chapter 53 - A Little Night Musik

**Chapter 53:** "**A Little Night Musik"**

The tablescape of dinner was as breathtaking as it was delicious, replete with as many fancy palatable dishes as could be found in a fine, five-star restaurant. But the tasty food wasn't all that was occupying the minds of our twelve sets of youthful hearts. Even though both Kanazawa Hiroto and Kira Akihiko were over the age of 'five and thirty,' their venerable 'aged' hearts still had room for a little trifle called 'love.'

Kanayan himself was a veteran married man. So much so he was able to see his favorite kohai of former Seiso years exchanging some romance-laden glances with that prim Tsuzuki Mari over the dinner table.

_I mean, I could see the kids giving each other goo-goo eyes over the gravy boat here in this Alpine castle my ladylove plotted. Especially since it's their European vacation's final night but—Geez, Kira! I expect you to be setting a better example of 'propriety and restraint' at the dinner table!_

Imagining what Kira himself might say in such a situation, had he not been the subject of it, Kanayan was flabbergasted, as he tries to keep up the conversation, almost singlehandedly, with a somewhat distracted Ousaki, whose attention was monopolized by one roving reporter's running mouth the entire meal, not to mention her adoring eyes winking cryptically back at him.

And it wasn't just them.

Romance seemed to be on every feminine mind, along with a conspiracy of goings-on between the anxious young men, peeping at each other, when they could tear away their gazes from the objects of their affections from time to time, with raised eyebrows or halting glances in between the stolen ones with their mostly shy, girlish  
counterparts, whose hearts were set aflutter by the mystery.

"So...what say we all to an exciting relay race of a billiards competition tonight? I'll bet you boys would enjoy that! You've just gotta see the Duke's pool table. Maybe a round of poker on the side afterwards, you guys are mature enough for that, I'd wager, ha, ha! My old pal, the Duke, has got a whole game room full of activities." A gregarious Kanayan suggests some of the castle's offerings over after dinner coffee and tea. But there seemed to be no interest in his vain attempts, save from the always agreeable, and very mature, Seiso teacher, Fudou Yosuke, who was cut off mid-amicable nod.

"—Actually we have something else planned for this evening already in mind. Thank you for your kind consideration anyway, Kanazawa-sensei. But we'll have to decline." Ousaki Shinobu answers with his ever-present smile behind his spactacles pleasantly enough, speaking for the group, as the boys strangely thin out as his speaks, until Kanayan, Kira, Ousaki and Fudou Yosuke were the only males left in the dessert room with the young women.

"**'We'** do?" Kanayan asks, his eyebrows raised at Caterina, who shrugs honestly, chuckling at the entire situation as Ousaki, too, then makes a quick bowed exit.

"Aren't you gonna tell me anything?! Aww, what the hell, Ousaki?!" Kanayan blurts the curse loudly, disliking being the last one in on a secret. At the sound of his raised voice cursing, Kira and Tsuzuki-san cease their private conversation where they were sipping coffee at the fireplace, due to the former teacher's raucous excitement, to glare at him, as Ousaki pauses in the lounge doorway, torn between obeying his respected teacher or his confederate in the 'crime,' Amou Nami, who was gesturing at him to hurry away.

"Do excuse the inexcusable expletive from your former teacher, young ladies." Kira Akihiko, a teeny bit tipsy himself by now, teases 'Kanazawa-senpai' with this 'apology' to the wide-eyed young women. Tsuzuki Mari smiles at him adoringly, standing at his side.

"What is going on—exactly—Ousaki-kun?" Turning with serious, suspicious eyes, Kira himself asks the younger man, whom he no longer felt was his love rival, one eye sidelong upon Mari.

"Let me just say—I can assure you all that your hearts will be able to fly through the heavens tonight." Dipping into a bit of poetry, Ousaki enigmatically states and receives a thumbs-up in the distance from the wide-eared Amou. He makes a quick bow and exits the room at last.

"Our hearts will do **what**? Has Ousaki been at the bottle again?" Kanayan quizzically asks Kira, as best friend Yosuke feigns  
ignorance with a pair of upturned hands. The girls giggle at the thought of the kind, benevolent OB drunk on alcohol.

Kira simply shrugs in response, giving up trying to explain the antics of this inane group—and frankly, not caring to do so anymore.

"And what do **YOU** know of this big mystery those rascally boys have got planned for us tonight, little Miss Priss Reporter?" Sensing her glowing behind him, like he had eyes in the back of his head again, Kanayan whirls around to turn his questioning upon Amou, who did have a strikingly glorified giddiness about her secretive face.

"Ooohhhh! How I despise inquisitive interrogation!" Putting on her best Kanazawa Hiroto imitation, Amou can't help but jab at her favorite 'press-unfriendly' professor.

"No comment." She smugly waves her rights to free speech before as Kanayan throws his frustrated hands up in the air and Yosuke lets out a hearty laugh and mouthed _'touche_' at the peppy girl's victory.

As for the other nine young ladies in the room, they exchange curious glances that Amou would only reward with a knowing grin on her happy face.

"You'll see..." Amou whispers finally, as she whips out her ever-present smartphone and begins stealthily typing out the next exciting chapter of her Austrian tale.

Upon waiting in the nervous silence, the other girls try to keep conversation with one another and Kanayan and his wife, despite their growing curiosity, when busy typist Amou Nami's phone rings and she takes the short call clandestinely.

"You are **SOOO** the man, Shinobunny. We'll be right there, lover!" She flagrantly whistles under her breath after the flirtatious statement of love during the clipped conversation's close.

"Be 'where'!?" Hino Kahoko, Mori Manami, Takatou Mio, and Yunoki Miyabi all ask in chimed unison. The five girls stick their pinky fingers up at one another, sharing expectant united grins with the quieter Fuyuumi Shoko, calm Sakimoto Mizue, introspective Kobayashi Nao, and frightened Shouji Megumi.

"You're about to find out!" Amou evasively puts on her most cunning smile, accompanied by a pair of wily eyes turning upon an unsuspecting Kira Akihiko and Kanazawa Hiroto.

"Go put your coats on, girls!" Before they knew what was being asked of them, the nine girls are whisked away in a tornado of Amou Nami's indomitable spirit.

* * *

In a matter of minutes, Amou had Kanayan, Kira, and Fudou Yosuke at the helms of the Duke's borrowed Rolls Royce, Bentley, and Jaguar, driving the jubilantly excited young ladies tucked up in their warmest coats and scarves and mittens, for the Austrian night in Salzburg in early November was chilly, to say the least.

Feeling quite like the 'Family Von Trapp' making their escape, the girls' imaginations equal their anticipation that grows with each passing street corner, once the three automobiles had exited the Casa's grounds.

Kanayan and Kira were both well-traveled in Europe's musical countryside to know precisely where they were headed, once Amou let the cat out of the bag, to them at least.

Happily content to ignorance, Fudou Yosuke follows in the stylish Jaguar, taking up the rear with his share of feminine passengers much entertained by his flirtatious French insinuations during the drive.

The young women that Caterina had seen to be safely tucked in mufflers and fur-lined hoods within the warmth of the vehicles had no idea what delicious surprise lie in store for them. But the impending excitement made not a one of them feel the nippy, cool breeze that greeted their arrival as the three older men, Mari and Caterina, led by one impetuous, giddy reporter, take the curious Kahoko, Mizue, Shoko, Miyabi, Ayano, Manami, Megumi, Nao and Mio towards an awe-inspiring large edifice.

As the group climbs the tall stone staircase with an overwhelming feel of hushed reverence towards their surroundings, they take in the magnificent splendor of an outdoor stage, carved into the very mountain itself—set amongst stone pillars and three floors of ancient stone arcades of a stunning centuries old amphitheater called 'The Felsenreitschule' where the Salzburg music festival was held every summer since it was carved into the Monschberg mountain in 1693.

Their breaths that had been coming out in smoky trails of cloudy puffs, suddenly catch in every one of their throats, as the sound of music begins to play by unseen hands and lips and fingers—all merging into one harmonious melody ringing through the empty, imposing amphitheater that the nine girls had been led into.

In the darkness of the late autumn night, the familiar music's warmth breaks through the frost and melts every heart that do indeed 'long to fly' with the sound of music, just as Ousaki Shinobu had predicted earlier.

For the hills of Salzburg were so alive with the beautiful sounds of eight harmonious instruments melding into one perfect rhythm.

An eloquently spoken violin sings its emotional voice sweetly.

A majestic piano flexes its contented power commandingly.

A placid cello comes to rest in its peerless tranquility.

An exhilarating trumpet shouts out its entertaining fervor.

An elegant flute unravels into resplendent sincerity.

A wistful viola smiles with optimistic compassion.

A refreshing guitar teases with playful vibrancy.

An impeccable violin finds intense brilliance come to light.

Eight disparate sounds weave in and out of each other's revealing stories, as if they were truly speaking to not just one another, but to an inspiration that took every player higher to achieve his truest sound.

The inspiration of each heart was now seated before the young men in the amphitheater's front row as Kira, Kanayan, and Yosuke usher the stunned-with-excitement young ladies in.

Smiling from the background, experienced veteran of Salzberg's most historical amphitheater stage, Amou's "man"—amiable, yet very persuasive Ousaki Shinobu—had pulled more than a few strings to orchestrate this night for them all.

Each girl somehow knew instinctively who was playing their respective instruments, though still shrouded under the cover of darkness, by the way their souls were touched as notes of American songwriters' Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic film reach out to them...

Amidst the heart of the land of pure music, the very countryside surrounding the ancient amphitheater with Austria's cool chilly atmosphere warms with the echoes of music that still played as gloriously as they did a thousand years before...

And when the romantic theme song draws to a close and the small private audience's ardent applause finishes, believing that the full ensemble theme song was already their special treat, they are all totally surprised by what comes next.

Especially Hino Kahoko, as, yet immersed in pitch darkness, upon that auspicious stage, the light of her love sets ablaze when "Salut d'Amour" begins to play in the singular tones of a solo violin, oh-so-familiar to her longing ears. Pristine beautiful at the same time filled with utmost longing, the strings themselves seemed to be singing to their one true love. Hino Kahoko was absolutely certain it was her own Tsukimori Len who was master of this violin's glorious strains even before a strangely ethereal light of sparkling fairy dust comes to glitter a golden spotlight, revealing Tsukimori Len's tall svelte tuxedo-ed form as he plays his violin as he plays only for her and her alone in this world.

It was her Len, his instrument sending her his love's greeting, as his gorgeous features, aglow within the fairytale light, showed that there was behind each and every bar, every refrain, every note—

His great love for his _Kahoko..._

_...Kahoko...I give you my sound..._

As Len begins to play the highest, most tender of the melodic moments towards the piece's crescendo, his eyes open to gaze upon Kahoko. His sheer love for her was apparent in each stroke across his violin's golden bridge with his well-trained bow as he releases the music of his soul to the girl who opened his heart in ways words could never express properly.

_Salut d'Amour – Liebe's Gruß – Ai no Aisatsu – Love's Greeting._

Whichever language he spoke it in, she was the meaning of them all.

Tears from two years spent in loneliness spring to Hino Kahoko's loving eyes in return, locked in his, as "Salut d'Amour" welcomes the redheaded girl with its touching melody that she would never tire of.

As her Len's "Salut d'Amour" pervades her entire being, Kahoko knows that never, never again could she live another moment without him near by her side.

Never could she exist without the sound of his tone color close by.

Len too feels the same way, determined that nothing—not time, nor space, nor oceans—could ever separate the two lovers again.

Inwardly silent, both swear this to their hearts simultaneously as if one, as the full ensemble sweeps in to give Elgar's piece its glorious close.

_I truly love you..._ Love's eyes greet one another as Kahoko jumps to her feet, applauding her love most passionately, enthusiastically of all, as Lili's magical illuminated spotlight on Tsukimori Len's handsome features glitters splendidly in soft blues before it turns the shine on another figure hidden by the darkness heretofore, seated at the gold gilt grand piano upon the outdoor amphitheater's stage.

* * *

"Fur Elise's" haunting melody of total dedication echoes powerfully throughout the ebony of Austrian skies. Tsuchiura Ryotaro's strong fingers dance upon the glowing ivory keys that flow with the experienced touch of years of training that, although taking a backseat to various sports and other interests for a time, could no longer be denied.

Just the same as his love for Sakimoto Mizue.

Mizue had been there for Tsuchiura through thick and thin all the while. She had put up with his confused choices, his ups and downs. She was able to tell him off when he needed it and then show him kindness when he needed that, too. And though he didn't know it until this trip, Tsuchiura realizes that he is able to play like this now because of her unwavering belief in him. He was smart enough to see it at last. Every time he had found that constant within him, solid enough to communicate the music hidden within his heart, and set it free, he knew now it was her. He was playing even right now for her.

_'Fur Elise' ... For Mizue..._

For her.

Mizue smiles and gives the strong piano player a thumbs up as he takes her up and down his music's endless road she was glad to be traveling alongside. She sensed somehow that her Ryo's most beloved piece just might have her in mind from the way he was looking at her. And that was all her generous heart desired to know.

_Every now and then, play for me. Every now and then... just for me..._

The ensemble takes the last bar together, everyone reveling at how well they all blended even on pieces that they'd never worked on together before. This accomplished group of Seiso's finest have grown to know each other so well by now, building on their friendships a bond that only the power of music could form.

* * *

As the applause finishes for 'Fur Elise', and Lili's magical spotlight fades from the proud greenish head, the fairy needn't have bothered to direct his sparkly light upon the next player, for angelic Shimizu Keiichi's blonde head seemed to have a halo of pure golden light all his own surrounding him and his precious cello in the darkness as moonlight suddenly breaks through the nighttime clouds to shine upon him. Shimizu was the vision of an ethereal being on loan from Heaven, sent down to grace the undeserving world with the moving composition he had written.

No, although much the rest of the world wondered, Shimizu was certain he was merely the instrument of his Creator to be able to compose His Music for all the world to hear His Glory.

Fuyuumi feels his golden light fill the amphitheater with warmth, though Shimizu's eyes never open, his fingers so as one with his cello, his spirit so one with his music he could almost travel upwards upon its crystal-clear notes beyond the sky...

_Not yet, Keiichi. Someone on earth needs to know you love her. That you'll be the one to watch over her forever..._

_I've found a new inspiration to my music...thanks to you...Shoko...thanks to you...I've found my truest composition that I've always been in search of..._

As the entire ensemble converge to accompany Shimizu's soulful composition, his sleepy eyes open to find themselves miraculously entwined with Fuyuumi Shoko's. Although his body's five senses, in the physical, didn't know where the small girl was seated in the audience, with his eyes closed from the moment the piece began, his heart, in the spiritual, was always at her side.

Fuyuumi felt so blessed to have her Keiichi's attention, but she was never greedy enough to believe that his entire beauty could belong to her alone. Shimizu Keiichi lived in the glorious world of pure unblemished music and she wished nothing more then to travel upon the notes he was gifted to impart to others within his tone color.

* * *

As Shimizu's heartfelt piece rolls to its sweet conclusion, Lili turns his magic spotlight on once again for an entertaining Hihara Kazuki. Awash in orangey hues, the trumpet player immediately brings  
sunshine even into the dusky darkened world at night, his vibrant trumpet never able to be dampened with its happy friendly rendition of "The Entertainer".

Hihara was a perfect example of the very fitting title. All his life, Hihara Kazuki wanted only to play music for enjoyment, not competition, but for himself and for other people's pleasure.

And now, for Yunoki Miyabi, too.

Right away, in between puffed warm blows in the cold air, Hihara stops to wink at the curly headed younger sister of his best friend. Miyabi in turn bounces her head back and forth in time with the happy piece of music that her favorite guy played just like she loved it, just to make her smile. That's what Kazuki-san's music always did to her! The young plummy girl senses utter goodness in this sweet kind young man that could only break out in song, in only music to fully express the joy he had to offer the rest of the world, along with his contagious smile, if they just listen!

And Miyabi was listening, a great big smile on her pretty face as Hihara aims his trumpet directly at her, as if trying to entertain her especially tonight! Miyabi, for her part, would never ever ever stop being entertained by her darling dream come true, Hihara Kazuki!

As the ensemble backs Hihara up at the end of Gershwin's song, Miyabi waves to him in reply as he salutes each of the players behind him and then her in true Hihara flamboyant style.

* * *

After the hullabaloo dies down, a rush of cold air follows the palpable warmth of a moment in the spotlight before. It was quite a dramatic change for the upbeat, triumphant "Entertainer" to transform into the sad and eerily beautiful '_Pavane pour un Infante defunte_', but it was the very story of Yunoki Azuma's life, wasn't it?

Drama, false gentleness, anxiety, sadness, beauty, freedom. It was all there, but only a few ever truly glimpsed the real man behind the flurry of personalities.

Takashina Ayano was one of those few. She glimpsed the fragile soul who went by 'Yunoki Azuma' in name only sometimes—and all the rest of the time, she envisioned he who longed for a freedom to be called someone else.

But Ayano wished to take that puzzle-pieced heart in her hands and nurse it with her complete and utter love until the name he finally embraced was one they could share the enigma of which together for a lifetime. It was only now, seen through the other side of the mirror of love, that Yunoki Azuma could learn to live a life—not through the 'black side' or the 'white side.' as 'Good Yunoki' or 'Bad Yunoki'—but as nothing more than himself, a mixture of the two.

After this selfless young woman gave up her everything and changed for him if that's what it took—he could try to be at least that for her. Through all the truths and lies was a destiny together, Yunoki could feel his physical strength returning day by day under Ayano's  
attentive care. And as for his mental state... he has not wavered since he discovered his "Princess" was not "dead" in spirit, but was as alive and willing to seek out excitement in a life just like him, someone he he didn't have to be fake for, who would take him for who he was.

_Someone I could believe in..._

Ayano's eyes were no longer dull or ignorant to Yunoki's. In them, as the full ensemble takes the "Pavane" to its close, he could see traces of freedom awaiting there invitingly.

For Ayano would change not only herself—but destiny itself—to save her love.

As the flutist's 'Pavane' melds into a calm thoughtful viola playing its '_Harold en Italie_', the same wind sweeps over Salzburg with the taste of the distant sea as Lili's spotlight moves from Yunoki Azuma to his popular pretty boy cousin.

* * *

Kaji Aoi loved playing the viola. Now that he thought about it, he loved playing soccer, too! And tennis and volleyball and—oh, the list was endless! But more than anything, Kaji Aoi loved being with people, making them laugh, be happy, and especially—make them love him. Kaji Aoi wanted love. He needed attention badly.

As his viola expresses that longing desire of his heart for love, Mori Manami knew she wanted to shower him with all she possessed She sees in the sweet innocent puppy dog that was her Aoi-san, eyes that searched for acceptance and love in the audience.

And when their eyes to meet finally, Kaji stops searching. For everything he ever wanted was right there reflected back at him in Mori-san as he wraps himself around the feeling that she will still love him tomorrow the same as she did the first day they met.

The same as today, she will love him forever.

Kaji Aoi's music smiles with the same joy Mori's heart felt, both seeming to see the blue skies in their futures all the more so if they were connected together. Horizons stretch out over limitless oceans that would be endless for them to climb higher upon the waves of tone colors their completely compatible hearts would find spring within for the rest of their lives, even in November's cold, where this year's Spring began for their hearts in each other's attentive love...

As Mori Manami sends her "Sweet Pea" a congratulatory blown kiss in a puff of breathy smoke that Kaji unashamedly pretends to catch midair, Lili focuses his artificial lighting upon the cool late autumn night where the refreshing melody of a guitar's strings burst onto the stage as if inviting a light show of brilliant fireworks that blossom into flowers to join the party.

* * *

Exciting and vibrant, the bass guitar's aggressive yet playful strings sing the jauntily expressive tune of Mozart's "Turkish Rondo". Fudou Shoma's expert hands immediately begin to fly up and down the four strings of his trusty guitar like the pro he was becoming.

His entire face lights up with each passing note that builds and builds until the crisp night air seemed to be enveloped by his reverberating rhythmic explosions in a medley of fireworks.

Fast-paced and fun, the music that truly was his own showcases the fresh bold excitement that his heart contained in expanding bursts of sound and light. Takatou Mio's own heart climbs with each soulful low pitched note. Whenever Sho-chan performed, it was like a light flashing in her head that finally understood, at last, what Kahoko meant when her friend once said "Music filled my life with its deep abiding love."

Sure, he was cross, at times, (_who doesn't have their bad days?_) and definitely opinionated, all the time (_hey, that's because Sho-chan's right most of the time_!) but Mio loved every second of basking in the navy blue haired man's honesty and contagious laughter. Ever since Shoma came into her life after they met at SeisoAcademy, Mio's somewhat dizzy excitement-seeking world had found her heart's equal. Especially when she discovered that this Mr. Tall Dark Blue and Good-Looking longed for the entertainment and fun she always looked for, too!

Mio revels in the heights Shoma's spirits soared, as each deep note, strummed by his talented bold fingers on the bass guitar, bring her to the mental picture of the fireworks he's taken her to on many occasions before. As they blossom into brilliant new flowers, in her head, Mio looks up with a wish upon each star above in the now brilliant moonlit night that was put there for her by Shoma's melody. Glancing back to the stage, Mio admires the fun-loving older boy, sensing he longed for the tie of his suit to be loosened, his curly hair banging quite unkempt, as he puts his heart fully into his playing.

As Mozart's effervescent piece playfully soars to its crescendo, Mio catches Shoma's bright smile catching hers, both then simultaneously remembering this afternoon's first touch and embrace, as both of them suddenly redden in the face. As Shoma looks away, his bass note  
almost falls flat as he holds it a measure too long. His heart pounds as his mood plays out, until Shoma's gaze snaps back to Mio, confident yet again. With a crooked smile, he watches her unconsciously reach her little hand up towards him in the hopes to touch him again, hold him in her tiny hands, steady him as if pulling him back to the  
exciting fireworks show they so love to watch together.

And his happy, easy-going music returns again was a brilliant vengeance for the fireworks night climax as their guide.

From out of nowhere, a slightly different set of fireworks were silently igniting when Kobayashi Nao feels a gentle warm hand slip around her own frozen pair, clenched on her lap all the performance. Sharing a knowing smile, Shoma's older brother Yosuke exchanges an understanding look with Nao for both their hopeful desire for sibling and friend's true happiness. In a way, during their time spent at the Seiso dorm studying together, their own relationship had come about by this mutual concern and thrust together acquaintance.

Nao sees now, despite past doubts, that maybe a loudmouth show-off like Shoma was exactly what her impressionable little friend needed. Nao involuntarily squeezes the dapper man beside her's gloved palm.

Yosuke, in turn, senses that his little brother would find his heart in this adorable little girl named Mio, so empathic of emotion and pure of spirit who loved life as much as he. They were made for each other. One did not have to be an artist to see the complimentary design.

_Just as you and I, my dear..._Yosuke's romantic mind could not help but turn his brother's budding romance to thoughts of his own, as he gazes longingly at the charcoal-haired girl at his side, squeezing her hand back, oh so gingerly...not wishing her to withdraw as normally.

* * *

As Fudou Shoma and Takatou Mio feel the fireworks set off in their own hearts this night, Lili sends one last solo spotlight under the Austrian moon in our story's medley...

The intense sound of disparate radical strings, high and low, slow and fast, soft and loud, knead expertly together 'Habanera's' awesome effect as it races to the scales with as much precision and skill as rarely ever Bizet's defining piece had ever been played.

But it wasn't merely the genius of the musician or his instrument, it wasn't only the strikingly stunning tall figure of the wine colored sixteen-year-old, nor the sheer presence of confidence he brought to any stage, that cut across the countryside's nightmare even in stark darkness, that was remarkable tonight.

No, this performance, just like that of his "_Je te Veux"_ played on the Vienna State Opera House's stage but yesterday, held the quality of ardent beauty all its own, an irresistible appeal that could not be expressed in any other way but in the playing of his music.

And only the particular listener the performer of this music intended to hear it, could fully understand its true majesty.

For Etou Kiriya, that listener was, now and forever, only to be Shouji Megumi. He never before believed his precise, determined to succeed, concentrated heart would have allowed someone else enter therein. That is, until he came to Austria. To this country of pure beauty whose romance enveloped his soul and made him see that there was only one thing his self-proclaimed "perfect" music had been lacking all these lonely years—

And that was love.

_Can you feel this change come over me, Megumi? How can I show you what you mean to me now?_

The never-before-experienced emotional desire for her love burned brightly in every passing note of Carmen's 'Habanera' played with extreme intensity as the impressive sound builds and builds, everyone in the large amphitheater sensing Etou Kiriya's passion intensifying. As the rest of the ensemble chime in, near the climax of the piece, Etou's flawless sheer willpower, as he focuses in everything he did, heart and soul and body into the expression of his deepening emotions, was clear to everyone present.

Especially Shouji Megumi, her racing heart stirred as she gasps for breath, so entranced by his gorgeous eyes making her feel as if they were the only two in the world as he gives her the most penetrating gaze, his eyes asking her something inaudibly desperate that was so intense, it was almost frightening.

Despite the cool night breeze, drops of sweat ran down his perfect forehead, down his noble nose and high cheekbones and finally off his long thin chinned beautiful face in a stunning display of intense emotion as Etou leads the ensemble to 'Habanera's' crescendo, absolutely taking Shouji's breath away with his climax, his face absolutely serious and filled with intensity towards her.

_Kiriya! Kiriya! What is it?! Is there something wrong?! Did I do something wrong?! What is it you want of me?_

Despite the excited-with-warmth raucous applause cheering the entire performance now that it has come to a dramatic close, Shouji feels the cold shiver running through her soon replaced by a warm blush when she suddenly feels the Director of the school, Kira Akihiko's blacker than the dark night's red eyes upon her from where he was seated a few seats away in the amphitheater's front row. Shouji unconsciously wraps her arms around herself, trembling incessantly and breathing hard as she turns away from Kira Akihiko's cold questioning gaze to look back to the stage, only to find the boy who had just sent her heart racing, no longer upon it.

Shouji tries to scan the now dark spotlight-less stage as the rest of the group were exchanging compliments and enthusiastic applause for one another and enjoying accolades from below, but her search was to no avail.

_Kiriya? Where did you—? Oh! _

Shouji Megumi is startled by the tall imposing presence suddenly standing directly before her. Etou Kiriya must have fearlessly leapt from the stage's dizzying height to be in such close proximity to her in such a short time. Still panting from leaping rushing dash coupled with his intense violin performance just moments ago, as if possessed by some inner demon—_Or was it an angel?—_Etou boldly takes Shouji's trembling hands in both of his, kissing them to his lips  
wordlessly, and then, without a saying anything, he vanishes into the darkness just as rapidly as he appeared.

No one noticed the swift dramatic flourish to the end of his dramatic performance, for they were all too busy congratulating each other's music, laughing at Lili's buoyancy or thanking Ousaki-senpai and Amou for making this unforgettable night's setting possible. Some couples were even embracing openly, for their own beau's heartfelt performance was specifically intended for each feminine audience member to enjoy the romance thereof.

No one noticed Shouji Megumi and Etou Kiriya's intense encounter...

No one save the one man who had the most interest in the promising young violinist's future welfare.

And just like his nephew, without so much as a parting word, Kira Akihiko takes off too, disappearing into the same pitch black night. The bright moon of a few minutes before was shadowed by a dark cloud hovering over an extremely confused heart and chest palpitating within Shouji Megumi, who stood breathlessly alone in the cold air, shaking with more than the chilly temperature.

_Kiriya? Is this already the end of our Violin Romance? _

Shouji's head was spinning, her heart pounding, hot and cold all at once as she hugs her tightening chest with the deep crimson rose he pinned there earlier being crushed with the aching thought that it was all too good to be true—that she would open her eyes and awaken from the wonderful dream he had given her these past few days—that she just didn't deserve any happiness because she was too guilty, too bad a girl, far too fallen with too many past wrongs done to ever deserve Etou Kiriya's love.

—And that maybe that kiss from his lips to her hands just now, maybe that was his way of saying a silent _goodbye_...


	54. Chapter 54 - A Bird In Flight

**Chapter 54: "A Bird in Flight"**

"Kiriya! Where are you going? Kiriya!?" Kira Akihiko would have been grateful for the encore of loud playing instruments heard blaring from the auditorium behind him, had he not been in the throes of an emotion he had only felt once before in his life. Certainly, Etou Kiriya had his lion's share of an independent streak that his uncle came to respect over their years spent together. But this was different.

Tonight, the older man sensed something in his nephew, a certain fire burning in Etou Kiriya's eyes of a decision made, a path chosen that Kira knew all too well, from past experience dear and still felt all too well.

A decision that was about to change the 16-year-old's young life.

At sixteen, Etou Kiriya was young enough to have strange notions about budding first love.

And he was also old enough to be impulsive about reacting to the new feeling.

Now, Kira Akihiko did not claim to be an expert on the subject himself. However, his own awakening heart to love's age-old mysteries made him acutely aware of how vulnerable at moments the emotion played on even a well-organized mature heart.

_So what must it do to youth's impetuous restless soul?_

With an intense déjà vu sense, Kira was almost afraid to find out, though already half knowing the answer, for Kira Akihiko had lived this very moment before.

_... Miya..._

Kira picks up his pace as Etou's long graceful legs briskly take him well down the streets in the fallen darkness, either not hearing Kira's bellowing call, or choosing to ignore it.

"That boy is as purposely stubborn as his father was …"

Grumbling beneath his breath as he rushes into the Duke's borrowed Rolls-Royce and quickly starts the engine, Kira recalls how many times his Seiso music classmate, Etou Gyouten could zone out and not hear anything beyond his own little world playing inside his wine colored head. And Kira also remembers how his older sister, Miya, longed to be part of that world that only the passionate violinist in Etou Gyouten heard.

..._ And perhaps as romantic as his mother…_

Kira sees in his mind's eye that same intensity, that same determination, that same passion in their son's gaze as he saw 17 years ago in theirs.

And if anything in the world could frighten Kira Akihiko, this was it, for he knew now, in painful hindsight, all those years ago, he had handled it all wrong. So wrong, that Kira regretted to this day the chance he denied himself at ever seeing his beloved sister alive again, before it was too late and dreams and music both lost their glow for him ever since.

_Miya? What should I do differently this time? I must not make the same mistakes I made with you then. Please guide me...I don't want to lose him, too..._

Searching his heart in a way he has never done before, Kira closes his eyes with a silent prayer directed Above as he steps on the brake pedal, when the vehicle reaches the boy's quick paced stride at the side of the dark Salzburg road.

"Don't try to stop me, Akihiko-san." is the fierce greeting that Kira receives from the teen turned away from him, as the older man rolls the window down to speak to him.

Stunned by Etou's sharp address, after a long moment of both Kira and car paused idling, Kira gently rolls forward, the answer on his lips, in part, the unsaid words of his heart he's never let go of regretting.

"I learned, years ago..." The dark man begins after a deep breath to speak through the window to the purpose driven teen walking outside.

"...not to stand in the way of what another person truly wants." Skilled driver Kira Akihiko starts out slowly, as the Rolls keeps slow pace alongside Etou's unyielding striding form.

"Did you?" Pausing his fluid gait at his guardian's unexpected response, Etou turns to face his uncle, a thousand emotions, from uncertainty to disbelief to understanding to trust, passing between the two men in the space of a few seconds, more than in all the three years they had lived together in the same house since the young violinist came to Japan.

And gleaming from deep behind those too familiar eyes was a determined light from inside the boy that told Kira the answer to his next question even before his mind posed it.

"If this **is** the path you truly want to walk, I will trust you to know your own mind, Kiriya."

Kira pauses the car from moving any further, believing he knew his nephew well enough by now. Etou was learning the lessons of life in this moment, that maturity grew with trust, just as Kira himself was experiencing trust grown with maturity.

And above all, in both scenarios—there had to be love. Kira and Etou both felt they had that, with Miya watching over her two most precious, bonding them together with her love for them both.

"It is." Etou Kiriya suddenly halts his confident stride to fully face his guardian, looking the older man straight in the eye with his utmost conviction conveyed.

"Then, get in. Driving will get you there and back faster." Kira motions with his dark head, his hand on the steering wheel firmly as he breaks the Rolls-Royce with the invitation.

His violin still clutched tight in hand since he had leaped from the stage, Etou pauses in the brisk coldness, his stubborn independent male ego glancing up the road and back before meeting Kira's eyes again.

Of two minds, Etou pushes his wayward tendrils of hair back with a hand to his head. Somewhat wary eyebrows hover over his deep in consternation eyes, and a half uncertain smile graces his full lips, until his strong will finally acquiesces to that of his equally obstinate uncle.

"Thanks, Akihiko-san." Etou Kiriya's especially largely developed Adam's apple bobs up and down swallowing both the bit of pride and his anticipating dry throat down.

"But I won't be needing the ride back…I think." The normally overconfident youth falters uncertainly at his own idealistic ideas.

"I just have to get something at the house first." Etou's anxious face softens into that winning smile, as he accepts his uncle's offer of a ride and alights into the passenger seat.

Kira cocks his head at the enigmatic way his normally brutally honest relation was acting. But with a small smile soon thereafter, Kira shakes it.

"As I told you before—if you do need me, I'll always be there to pick you up. You just have to call." Patting his cellphone nestled in pocket, Kira looks upon his ward's noble profile with a proud paternal air and not so guarded smile, but the boy's mind was too many miles and  
unsaid words away out the side window to make either of them embarrassed by the familial show of pride and congeniality.

"Dad always said that my Mother regretted not telling you that they were going off to America." As his graceful fingers wind around his necklace pendant unconsciously, Etou suddenly turns from his reverie as if something in the newly formed moonlight prompted this revelation.

Kira gazes into the boy's honest eyes and nods gratefully as he continues to drive, steeling his own eyes forward.

"I'm not asking for your permission. But I would like to have your consent. There's a difference, you know." Etou's arrogance couldn't help but show through a little bit somewhere amidst his words.

"You are the only family I have left."

The words hang thickly in the air of the vehicle as it waits to pull into the castle's electronic front gate.

"And you, mine, Kiriya. I want you to succeed in everything you set your mind out to do." Kira's stoic face breaks for a moment of a sincere smile as the Rolls Royce pulls in the drive before the Casa.

"Thanks, Akihiko-san, that means a lot to me." Etou tosses back as he jumps from the car seat with his eager youthful legs and dashes up the stone steps and into the castle as if he owned the place.

_I suppose you do feel that way when you're young and in love. Is that how it was for you too, Miya?_

_Love is a bird in flight. Once taken wing, it can never be held back by Man's hand again…_

* * *

Back at the Felsenreitschule amphitheater where the Salzburg Music Festival takes place annually every August...

After the din of accolades and laughter begins to die down and the darkened night's breezes blow cooly, Shimizu Keiichi immediately suggests, in his inimitable way, an ambitious plan of visiting first the nearby Salzburg Dom Cathedral, then the Nomnberg Benedictine Abbey, then St. Peter's Abbey, the Basilika Maria Plain, and finally ending with the Geburtshaus—the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself.

By the time the blonde angel finishes explaining in his usual slow pace what each holy church and shrine signified in history, most of the other couples either opted out, most politely, or wandered off wordlessly, during his pre-tour speech instead.

On their final vacation night, with the Alpine peaks visibly close by from the city's center, called more for a romantic stroll down nearby Altstadt path, it known for being one of the prettiest cities in Europe.

Romance filled each heart already, stirred by the music played, one for the other, that made some of the couples long to be alone with each other only, rather than on the scenic tour with the group.

Shoma, Kaji, Hihara and Yunoki soon decide to take Mio, Manami, Miyabi and Ayano to the Altstadt shoppes for souvenirs amidst Amou Nami clicking scenic photographs behind them, along with Tsuzuki Mari as 'chaperone,' while Len and Kahoko, Yosuke and Nao, and Tsuchiura, prompted by Mizue, leave for moonlit walks back to the Casa Austria, in different directions.

That left only Ousaki, Fuyuumi and Shouji remaining standing there, cordially listening to Shimizu prattle on, until a gruff voice interrupts.

"I have no idea where Kira took off to, so..." Glancing around at the thinned out crowd, Kanayan still felt like a teacher at times, despite his students' growing maturity. "It looks like it's gonna be you, since everyone else already split. Some new teacher, that guy..." Kanayan grumbles at suave young educator Yosuke's irresponsible failings just taking off like that, acting like a lovestruck kid more than designated adult.

"It's late and these kids need a chaperone, Ousaki, 'cause I'm gonna be heading back to the Casa. Cat's not feeling too well, so I thought we should call it a night." Kanazawa-sensei's deep, mellow voice rings out his concerns through the darkness somewhere nearby the Duke's Bentley, where he was depositing his lady wife.

"Oh, dear! I am sorry to hear that! I do hope you'll feel better very soon, Mrs. Kanazawa." Ousaki Shinobu's gentle strains respond amiably as he walks over and pats the lady's hand, where she sat in the front seat of the car.

"Thank you, dear. I'm sure I'll be fine." The soprano nods back at the kindly man.

"Don't worry about us, Kanazawa-sensei. We'll be fine." Ousaki smiles his trademark friendly smile and Kanayan nods, at least having the utmost confidence in responsible Ousaki Shinobu to get his 'kids' back safe and sound, as the dark red haired man leads his charges into the borrowed minivan that the group of boys had come to the Felsenreischule's open air amphitheater in. Kanayan eyes cautiously Seiso's slick new English and Mathematics teacher at Seiso as Fudou Yosuke and his loud little brother take off with Hino's friends in one of the Duke's other sports cars they had on loan to drive.

"Oh!" Ousaki suddenly swivels on his heel with a thought. "If you see Nami—ahem, Amou-san—later," Ousaki corrects his too familiar address with a grin, "—please tell her our itinerary, so she can catch up with us if she wants." The bespectacled man says with a tinge of loneliness, for Amou Nami, the reporter, took off without a second thought or word to him to shoot photos of the Altstadt shoppes at night with the couples under Tsuzuki Mari's care.

"Cathedral, Abbey, Abbey, Basilika, shrine—got it!" Kanayan recites by memory a quick description of Shimizu's drawn out plan for the night.

"You're all gonna be real busy getting blessed tonight!" Kanayan jokes as he gets in the Bentley and starts its engine as Caterina silently reminds him to buckle up with an elegant tapped finger to seatbelt.

"And I'll be sure to say a special prayer for you three while we're there, Kanagawa-okusan. Good night." Shimizu manages to say _Kanazawa__'_s name incorrectly yet again, as he's hurried into the car.

"Good night!" Ousaki, Fuyuumi and Shouji call out to the couple in varied speeds and tones, as Ousaki starts the engine, behind the wheel of the minivan.

"Good night, kids! Have fun!...If you're allowed to, inside old cobwebby monasteries and stuffy Cathedrals and Abbeys, that is..." Under his breath, Kanayan sarcastically jibes, hearing Shimizu's words in his head, only after he shuts the door of his own car. "Hey! Did Shimizu say 'three of us?' Can't that kid count any straighter than he can remember names? And why does he think we need a prayer anyway?" The lavender haired older man comments with a chuckle to his exhausted wife, with a bewildered twisted lip at the frustrating angel who was his former student, as he puts the vehicle in gear.

"You know that boy says the funniest things, Hiro. Be nice to him. He's precious." Caterina fights her tiredness with a soft smile.

_But perhaps, it is from God's mouth to that child's ear..._

She silently muses, believing that the angelic blonde's insistence to visit the most holy of all Austria's religious shrines must be spurred by Inspiration, as her husband drives the Bentley back to the Casa for the quiet remainder of the night.


	55. Chapter 55 - My Blushing Sweet Pea

**Chapter 55: "My Blushing Sweet Pea"**

"Wow! This tea shop is really amazing! Look at all those pretty pictures on the walls! And the sparkling china and gold silverware and these cute little lace thingys! I love it here!" Surrounded by frilly tablecloths, lacy curtains and dainty tea sets, Kaji Aoi was reduced to a sniveling sycophant, playing with the little whatnot yarn napkin holder with a hand-painted googly eyed face like a little girl. But that was not unusual for him. As a politician's son, Kaji had learned to schmooze with the best of them. But unlike most of the other public spirited 'servants of the people,' effervescent Kaji Aoi truly meant every drooling compliment.

He was a born a flatterer by nature, and Mori Manami, watching every childish giggle and innocent word across their small table, as Kaji enthusiastically soaks up the quaint tea shop's atmosphere, found him all the more irresistibly adorable for it.

Though his own classier cousin was hiding behind a menu with a bemused smile, woefully attempting to ignore the noisy lad disrupting the quiet Austrian café he and Ayano were seated at a nearby table, it was the shy girl herself who speaks out in the end.

"Ayano believes our tea shoppe is every bit as amazing as this one, with all our authentic Japanese decor, tableware and artwork we offer our guests. **We** do not have children's toys at **our** tables." Now that was a very astonishing sentence to be coming from quiet Ayano's mouth, and it raised Kaji Aoi's eyebrows almost as high as his taken down a peg high-pitched squeaky voice. But the girl in question had had enough of the dripping with saccharine teen since the three pairs arrived with Tsuzuki Mari at this Salzburg tea shop.

"Touche." From behind his menu, Yunoki Azuma salutes her beneath his breath proudly, smirking at his fiancée's display of peppery spirit tonight.

"Oh! Takashina-san! I didn't mean—I just never was in your, no doubt, wonderful tea shop—I mean—I wish I did go and I'm sure I'd love it if I did—" Kaji grasps unsuccessfully for apologies to the offended tender maiden, looking plaintively to his cousin for a hint of what to say to fix it up, failing miserably himself as Yunoki merely shrugs. That's when Mori rescues his mouth from putting his big foot in it, yet again. Instead, she stuffs a sweet pastry bun snugly in before what comes out gets him into any further trouble.

"Have a sweet bun, my Sweet Pea." Mori coos at how her big mouth beau blushes at this newly dubbed nickname, every other thought sapped from his Swiss cheese-like mind.

"Schw-eet ...Pea?" Kaji's overfull mouth mumbles in between big bites of the tasty delicacy Mori had just left it with, his face the brilliant shade of the red bloom by the time he finishes swallowing it, his big aqua blue eyes wide.

"My blushing Sweet Pea." Mori, in rhythmic time repeats, touching her finger to some whipped cream frosting from her cake and dabbing the mesmerized boy's nose tip with it, garnishing with a tiny cherry until he was cross eyed looking at it.

"Hi-dee-ho! Altstadt Tea Shop patrons. How are we enjoying this quaint little establishment's doubtlessly delicious offerings? Hmm? How about a photo or two for my magazine layout?" Amou Nami, as always, sweeps in the shop on a whirlwind of hype and flashing camera bulbs, as she snaps a shot of happy customers Yunoki and Ayano and then Kaji and Mori, before noticing the big blob of white whipped cream complete with a red cherry adorning Kaji Aoi's surprised to be caught on film nose.

"Did I miss something newsworthy?" Amou asks dejectedly at the thought of fumbling the candid camera scoop whilst slacking with Hihara and Miyabi in the gift shop next door as she secretly hunted for something special to give Shinobu-san as a memory of her when she and he would have to part ways again tomorrow.

_Over already? Where did this week go...? _Her busy racing mind shudders for second at the lonely thought of leaving Ousaki Shinobu behind when the rest of the gang returned home to Japan.

Amou Nami shakes her head to clear it of silly emotions. She was a crack reporter first, exposé photographer next, rumor mill queen third...A girl with a heart to break came somewhere way down the list.

"Perhaps not front page newsworthy. More befitting the comic section." Yunoki chuckles at his sparring cousin's embarrassing misfortune, though the starry eyed golden blonde seemed not to care if the press saw him in such a state, for he and Mori Manami were making goo-goo eyes at each other too much to notice.

"Comics? Do they sell comics here, too? Look at all these cool Harukanaru ones! They're even cool translated in English! I'm still rooting for Tenma-kun! I guess I like his clothes and orange hair best!" Hihara, blissfully unaware, flips through the translated NeoRomance comic he picked up in the gift shop next door.

"Ah, Hihara. Ever the optimist." Yunoki Azuma casually smiles at his best friend's sanguine purity, as he goes to the counter to pay the young female Austrian caretaker of the shop generously both in Euros and compliments, to which the woman nearly swoons, for debonair  
Yunoki had not lost his effect on women, despite his recent illness and total lack of trying. The stately young man then returns to their table with the offer of a clean handkerchief for his cousin and a genuine warm smile that evaporated all hard feelings of moments ago.

"Thanks, Yunoki-san." Kaji sheepishly wipes the cream from the tip of his nose as the little cherry falls and rolls across the wooden floors to Hihara's feet.

"No hard feelings, cousin?" Yunoki's smile was reaching out to Kaji for all past transgressions between them to be forgiven at long last.

"Not a one, 'Cuz." Kaji goes from bumbling idiot to stable young man in a matter of seconds, he and Yunoki shaking hands with a friendly atmosphere their family had rarely, if ever, seen.

But Yunoki Azuma was a changed man now, in both pleasant disposition and stable temperament.

"Now that's definitely a picture-perfect moment, if I ever saw one." Amou snaps a few shots of the tender scene. Miyabi rushes up between the two and hugs a happy arm around each reconciled boy.

"Did you and Kaji have a food fight, Yunoki?" Hihara quietly asks his best friend in hushed wonder at the messy scene and now the olive branch of forgiveness being passed around the family.

"Owwy! I got it! I got it, Miyabi-chan!" Hihara yells out suddenly, feeling the signature squeeze.

"Oh, Hihara." "Hihara san!" Yunoki and Kaji laugh simultaneously at their boisterous friend's exclamation at Yunoki's little sister's tight squeezed hand code with the trumpet player. And the entire shop's well humored patrons laugh right along with the Yunoki family and close friends.

"Want your cherry back?" Hihara teases as he joins the pleasing scene, proffering the discarded scooped up little fruit in his fingers. Kaji smiles, accepting the cherry and boyishly holding it to his nose as he turns to face Mori.

Although, even with the red red cherry nose of a clown, Mori Manami could see Kaji Aoi only as her red, red Sweet Pea. Amidst the happy cacophony of laughter and noise all around them, when the couple's eyes meet, Mori could see in the reflection of his crystal clear eyes, the aqua blue of the sea she loved to swim within.

* * *

"Will you come outside with me, Mori-san? There's someone special I really, **really **want you to meet!" His whispery voice was practically begging with the mysterious plea his eyes were sending.

Mori Manami stands up from her seat, puts her hands on her hips, and brandishes her most condescending, yet still winning, smile.

"I will follow you wherever your heart wants to take me, Aoi-san." Mori proudly whispers back in her teasing way as Kaji jumps to his feet like an overexcited child and grabs her hand, the pair sneaking out from the chatty crowd into the chilly Austrian night air.

"Just wait 'til you meet her!" Kaji bubbles over, spinning on his heel to face her, replete with expectant giggles, causing Mori's eyebrows to furrow at his last word as she follows him out to the sidewalk.

"Her?"_ Was it curiosity? Confusion? Jealousy? _Mori couldn't quite pin down the new emotion her 'Sweet Pea' had aroused within her. But nonetheless, he was up to something strangely enigmatic in his silly playful naivete.

And whatever it was her golden boy had in mind, Mori Manami was game.

"OH, NO!" The wailing pitch in distress of his high voice certainly came quite unexpectedly. For almost as soon as the two emerged from the cafe, something in Kaji's rapid scanning of the darkened sky above drew his exuberant face to fall into the depths of despair quite severely.

"Is something... wrong, Aoi-san?" Mori's brows knit in concern, she placing a comforting hand on his deflated shoulders, despite her own growing confusion.

"I don't see her! Ohh, pooh." His face puckers cutely as his gaze remains upward, as if entreating the clouds to lift from the night sky, if just for a few seconds or two. His voice was both disappointed and pouty concurrently, as he looks up and around madly.

"I really wanted to introduce her to you, Mori-san." He says, his imploring eyes never wavering from their hope up at the cloudy night sky.

"See **who**, _exactly_, Aoi-san? What woman did you find here in this foreign city that you think I would want to meet?" Her eyes slitting suspiciously at the darkened street's passersby, Mori was getting a bit perturbed by now, all their good humor of before stolen away by the little green eyed monster who lives inside all of us to some degree when we're in love.

"She's not a woman." His straining eyes don't even deem to give Mori a glance to accompany his short response, the girl nodding bravely as she tries to understand his words, vainly attempting to quell her jealousy amidst her confusion.

"She a _Lady. My Lady..." Sink._

Kaji Aoi's spacey voice goes all sugary sweet with that lovey-dovey syrup Mori thought he only used for the girl he was madly in love with.

And up until a few short seconds ago—Mori Manami was under the impression that that lucky choice girl was her.

"Oh, is she?" It was Mori's turn now to be deflated. She felt like simply marching back into the cafe and getting Hihara-senpai to come and punch out this guy who was so blatantly obvious in two-timingly shattering her heart.

_And after everything we meant to each other under that moon in __Trieste__... Never mind, Hihara-senpai, I'll deck the cad myself! 'His Lady', hmph!_

Mori Manami was no pushover throwaway doll of any man, not even this son of a famous politician.

_Should have figured you can't trust a single one of those as far as you could throw one! Or something like that._

"Look! There she is!" Interrupting the girl's cloudy thoughts, Kaji suddenly shouts out in his loudest, most boisterous voice. Mori comes out of the dark mushroom growing corner of her mind, to follow his pointing finger 'Up! Up! Up!' into the night sky.

"Yes! I'm sure! It's her! That is...I think... it's her...umm... let me double check." Kaji's oh-so-certain voice becomes less sure of himself with every passing word. Mori was at a total loss now when the young man whips out a small compass from his top jacket pocket and begins waving it around in strange gyrations with his fist at hand held arms length, mumbling to himself some incoherently counting numbers and reciting memorized directions. Mori wonders if her golden boy had truly lost his marbles, or if it was something in the whipped cream he was eating.

"YES! THAT'S HER!" Kaji stuns Mori with the ferocity of his  
sudden cry. As he jumps up and down with utter joy, pointing up at the sky like a nut job, a small teddy bear falls from his inside coat pocket and tumbles across the sidewalk with an extra bounce until it plops at Mori's astonished feet.

"A gift for your '_Lady'_, perhaps?" Mori smirks, confused and envious as she picks up the honey golden furred bear, it winking up at her as she dusts the crumbled autumn leaves from its fuzzy bum.

"Oh! Um—uh—yeah? Can't I do anything right?" Kaji's looks range from shocked, to anxious, to embarrassed, to self-loathing, his face turning red as a beet, reiterating Mori's jealous suspicions again.

She gazes down at the happily winking bear her hands with a sour expression on her own face as she notes a scroll tied in a pretty ribbon held between its guilty paws.

"So, what does he have here for your _friend_?" She valiantly attempts to speak civilly to her heartbreaker, trying to go back, at least, to being the friends they were before this whirlwind European escapade.

"Open it and see." Kaji's blushing giggling gaze was now directed on her fully, Mori unable to help but share the blush in her guilt, though jealousy still rears its ugly head.

"Are you sure **_she_** won't mind?"

"Not at all! She's been waiting for you for a long, long, _long_ time!" He answers with a big dumb mysterious smile.

"Fine. Just for curiosity's sake." Mori takes the scroll from the bear's hands and unrolls it, her face shrouded in anger until she reads the words written in embossed golden letters on a fancy looking printed certificate.

* * *

International Star Registry

**YOUR PLACE IN THE COSMOS**

**Andromeda Nebula M31**

Coordinates: (Right Ascension) **5h 8m 39s **(Declination Values )** 3**° **48' 33"**

Star name: **MANAMI**

* * *

"I'm a star? Aoi-san? You named a star after me? Of all the...That is the most...sweet...most silly...most_ romantic_ thing anyone's ever done for me—or probably ever will." Touched to no end at the over-the-top romantic gesture, Mori holds the official looking certificate before her in disbelief, her scoffing chuckles mixed with Kaji's gleeful pent-up ones of delight now letting loose before his voice suddenly goes dead serious.

"You are my Lady, my Ocean Princess of the stars...Manami...san." Kaji makes his first stab at calling her by her first name, as specified on her special International Star Registry certificate, though he couldn't help from adding the polite address of "-san" at the end, for that's the kind of guy he is. His finger points out which one he believed to be the designated star, if only because it was blinking especially brighter and more luminescent than all the rest.

"So that's what you were calculating and plotting with all those hand gyrations." Mori feels quite ashamed to have accused her Sweet Pea of any double crossing shenanigans, even for a second! She watches how clever he is in his sweet attempts at triple checking her star's  
exact coordinates on Google Earth maps and zeroing in on it with his compass. All the while, his nervous mouth was modestly explaining how he used his book smarts to investigate how to find "MANAMI" on the star charts, utilizing the Big Dipper and Polaris and Orion at the estimated angles north, south, east and west of the horizon.

Although, it all goes over Mori's head like a shooting star when Aoi-san puts his arm around her shoulders, drawing his face close to hers as they chart the astros of the Andromeda system together in search of the star named 'Manami' that was surely twinkling back at them from somewhere out there.

"Remember I promised to take you to everyone of the seven seas? Well, there's been a discovery of one more dazzling sea-"

"The Sea of Stars." His hands motion with a flourish to the heavens and the countless twinkling lights dotting the sky above.

"It's so lucky! I've read that this is the best time of year, here in Austria, to view the Andromeda constellation system..." Kaji rambles on as he plots the star's course, his head suddenly jerking up from the careful scrutinizing of his instruments.

"Yes! I'm absolutely, 100% sure now I've located her. Follow my finger...I mean... please...follow where I'm pointing. There! Isn't Manami beautiful?" Kaji starts to openly drool as he gazes adoringly at a singular light within that sea of stars.

"Why thank you, kind sir." Mori takes the compliment personally with teasing grace as she uses her new gifted teddy bear to wave and then subsequently plant a beary kiss on a surprised Kaji's reddened cheek, while she makes the smoochy sounds herself.

"Oh no! Not again!" Kaji 's red-faced embarrassment is covered by a dark cloud passing between the Manami in the sky and the Manami on the ground. Kaji Aoi is caught somewhere in between as he waves his gangly long hands and legs frantically, trying to wipe the dark clouds away, as if using a blackboard eraser.

"Aoi-san! It's all right!" Mori tries to pacify him with her softest, most reassuring smile.

"Ohh, pooh!" Kaji scrunches up his nose and face at his disappointment, stamping his feet on the lightly covered icy ground in protest of the mean old clouds shrouding their shared star after they finally located its dazzling shine.

Now Mori was not able to help but chuckle at his utter adorableness.

_I love that sweet vulnerability in you. You need me, Kaji Aoi. And you're going to listen to me from now on. You can do anything you set your mind upon, as long as I've got your back. And I always will. _

_I will follow you to the ends of the earth... even to the sea of stars..._

"Kaji Aoi. Look at me." Spinning around to face him, Mori orders suddenly, the astonished boy's fallen gaze snaps up to her at attention immediately when her voice changes to command mode.

"Yes, ma'am?" He courteously answers in all sheepish innocence.

"Neither my star nor I mind a few clouds every now and then, because we always know where to find a pair of stars that I know by name myself." She announces proudly, cupping his long chin in between your finger and pulling him to look at her even as his gaze itches to glance upwards again, but her firm hand and intense eyes refuse to let him.

"You do?" Kaji asks, mesmerized under Mori's spell.

"Absolutely. Since the first day we met, I could clearly see them sparkling at me, even in the morning when they hid behind the sun, even through the raindrops."

"Really? Did you have yours named, too?" Kaji whispers in awe, his eyes going wide, mind addled by her mysterious words and intoxicating proximity until he's turned to a puddle. Mori pulls his flailing uncomfortable arms, hanging restlessly at his sides, closer and around her torso until they were locked in an embrace.

"Yep. These twin stars right here, right now, 'Sweet' and 'Pea' glimmering just for me, were with me all the while." Mori presses a soft finger on the cheekbone under each of Kaji's already wide eyes sparkling at her, especially as they fill with joyful tears.

"Whenever you came near, the blue sky became bluer, the ocean sparkled more and the sun came out to laugh with you, my Sweet Pea. So why wouldn't a star named 'Manami' want to follow you anywhere, too?" Mori whispers up into his big mesmerized aqua eyes.

"You're more than my star, Manami-san. You're every wish I ever made upon one. You're the answer to all my prayers." Kaji, never ashamed of expressing his true feelings, breathes the words as his dry lips long to taste her moistness once again, just like his every longing  
daydream, replaying that night by the ocean where his mermaid became real, not just a fantasy any longer...

"I love you...my mermaid..." He murmurs, followed by a sweet lingering kiss.

"And I love you today as much as the first day I met you." Mori says between kisses, knowing it was, indeed, that much acclaimed 'love at first sight' miracle for her.

"My Blushing Sweet Pea..." As she finishes saying it, the dark sky is illuminates.

"Look! She's back! It's her!...It's you." Ecstatic as a child on the crest of waves of innocent happiness, in love as a man sure in his belief high enough to climb into the sky, the clouds lift to reveal the sky's especial glitter.

"Through the sea of stars, my beautiful mermaid princess swims...to me.." His flowery words pepper Mori Manami's once prosaic soul with endless dreams of love and about that many kisses.

"That's a very poetic campaign speech, Representative Kaji. You definitely have my vote." Mori whispers, gently nibbling his lower lip as they leave one final breathless kiss.

Kaji Aoi, blushing furiously at her bold advances, though pleased as punch at her satisfactory reaction to all his endeavors, winks back as the pair parts their embrace to gaze up at the starscape. They lean back to back to get a better view of the single most brilliant star blinking through the night sky clouds with incredible radiance, and Kaji was completely certain in the correct naming thereof.

"Manami, huh?" Mori smiles over her shoulder at her precious loverboy under the suddenly clear night sky alight with countless stars they'd yet to name together surrounding her very own.

The stars dance as if in a waltz, the warming echoes of a tender viola lilting their rhythmical pulsating as the heavenly bodies travel on their ageless journey through the galaxy, now set to his music.

For her, just for her, all the stars were gathered in the aqua blue of his eyes, now reflecting Manami's beloved oceanic gleam back in return. Whatever path their lives take from now on, their stars would always be there to glimmer hope to one another.

Mori Manami would stand by her man always, no matter what the season. For though it was Winter at the moment, it would always be Spring in both their hearts from now on, filled with the love wished upon one special star by her Blushing Sweet Pea...


	56. Chapter 56-WhereExistsMyGoddessoftheMoon

**Chapter 56: "Where Exists the Goddess of My Moon?"  
**

"Girls are such remarkable creatures." With the twisted lip of sarcasm, Yunoki Azuma offhandedly chuckles to his best friend walking beside him. This comment was in part due to the fact that, as the group left the café, Amou Nami had suddenly given out a squeal of delight and had inexplicably dashed across the icy street, avoiding incoming traffic and busy fellow shop district patrons as she slips and slides down the lane with the nine lives that only cats, fools, and headstrong reporters possessed.

"Hey! I heard that! We're girls too, Big Brother." Yunoki Miyabi cries out indignantly at her older sibling's glossed over taunt of her entire gender. The plummy teenager, on the brink of womanhood enough to take offense at male superiority, elbows Ayano to agree.

Clinging to Yunoki's arm, Ayano was awakened from her blissful ease to look more like a young gazelle in the headlights than a modern woman's rights advocate as she relents, gulps, and joins in at the prodding persuasion of Miyabi's insistent nods.

But the moment after she does, meeting her fiancé's bemused eyes, Ayano immediately buries her face in the folds of his creamy tuxedo-ed chest and lavender silk scarf. Yunoki smiles, then frowns, then smirks as he gazes down upon Ayano's ebony head. A palette full of emotions began coloring his newly healed heart with the varied shades thereof.

"I **had **noticed that little fact, Miyabi. I meant no offense, do pardon me." Her highfaluting big brother raises one lofty eyebrow at his younger sister with amusement in his voice that was neither the glassy facade of 'Good Yunoki' nor the pent up maelstrom of 'Dark Yunoki.'

Just the real Yunoki Azuma, as he tenderly strokes Ayano's mortified head still bent to his chest in shame.

"Besides, I simply meant the description 'remarkable' as in 'able to inspire thought.' And you both do the word justice tonight." He never was at a loss for suave comebacks, but this one at least was genuine. Yunoki Miyabi was as forgiving of her still recovering elder sibling as she was glad to see him walking and talking and teasing her again as a big brother should.

Miyabi grins, squeezing Yunoki's thin frail arm lovingly to her cheek and hugging it as she looks up fondly.

"Wait! I think girls are remarkable, too!" Missing the point entirely, as usual, Hihara Kazuki agreeably agrees to Miyabi's obvious delight, believing that, by mimicking his best friend's words, he was sure to get some similar cuddly attention for himself. Besides, he never wanted to irk Yunoki's fragile psyche again, as Hihara eyes his friend anxiously.

But he need not have worried, for Yunoki Azuma was his own man now- whoever that may be. Yunoki, through the fire, was slowly working his way to the realization of who he truly was. He could thank his physical recovery to Miyabi and Hihara, the 'Girl Power' troop and even Kanazawa-sensei's 'miracle soup' in apportionment .

But his mind knew he owed his unraveled soul's restoration to the girl hanging on his arm. Ayano was the one constant in his tumultuous life, who, though seemingly the weaker sex herself, Yunoki knew he could credit her as the stronger of the two of them, using her strength to change his unkempt reality with her complete and utter love.

"Oh! Here's that Geburtshaus that Shimizu-kun was talking about!" Hihara's loud voice breaks his more sedate friend's deep train of thought. Yunoki had been so preoccupied that he left it to Hihara to wander, leading the four of them down a dead-end corner of the Altstadt Main Street.

The foursome pause in their languid stroll down the avenue to gaze up at the yellow brick building with the name imprinted upon it in honor of Salzburg's most prolific classical composer to whom it was a shrine to.

"Ooh! I love Wolfy's music! We've been **_so_** studying him in my class at Seiso this quarter!" Miyabi cries out in enthusiastic excitement her familiar nickname so dubbed for the most famous son of the city in her utter cuteness that the celebrated composer most probably would not mind.

"_Da da da! Da da da da da da! Di da di da di di da da di!" _Miyabi begins such vibrant humming and air trumpeting motions a Mozart's "Eine Klein Nachtmusik" that even Yunoki Azuma feels a tad embarrassed for his quaint little sibling and the intrigued yet mystified crowd growing around her until Hihara comes to the rescue of her puerile childish display.

The 19-year-old whips out his genuine trusty silver trumpet, joining Miyabi with the real thing in a jaunty rendition of Mozart's most famed piece. The charm of Hihara's right on the spot playing was added to by Miyabi's adorable antics as the two continue their happy skit with flourish. Soon the giddy noisy pair had acquired quite a crowd of passerby spectators who were generally too chilled and too busy to stop by the aging Geburtshaus this time of night, this time of year. But the boisterous trumpeter and his 'air trumpet' accompanist performing this unique rendition of their own music legend's most known work had drawn the citizens in. The two oblivious merrymakers finish their funny duet, while the burst of applause and cheers of energetic youth's approval surprises Hihara and Miyabi both.

The pair beam innocently from ear to ear, first at the crowd, then at Yunoki and Ayano and finally at each other, both giving a joint gratified bow to the pleased onlookers.

"Oh, Kazuki-san! That was fun!" Miyabi giggles as their spectators, in turn, enter the museum/shop/shrine, inspired by the pair's bright musical performance enough to go for visit.

"Come on Miyabi-chan! Let's go in, too!" Hihara grabs Miyabi's hand as the two scene stealers dash into the shrine's front door together.

* * *

But the joyous sunshiny mood seemed to go with them, leaving only an eerie silence behind the dispersed crowd.

"Is it all right with you if we don't go in?" Alone in the now quiet street, Yunoki Azuma breathes the query into the girl's hair, just audible enough for her to hear. But the very vibration of his every word, his every pervasive look enticed her every sense.

"That would please me very much, Azuma-sama." Ayano whispers, diverting her eyes as she always does from meeting those of the man who no longer frightened her, but who still struck awe in the shy proper girl as she looks down and away from his quizzical stare.

Yunoki pauses for a moment before he deftly and rapidly pulls the young woman into the building's dark cove to the left of the doorway entrance.

"Would it, Ayano?" The indigo head cocks with the question, the atmosphere around him transforming, though the voice remains at a median.

"Is it** your** preference to wear these sorts of things?" He fingers her dark hair as examining eyes assess her mini skirted high heeled form and his other hand gestures to her rather risqué outfit.

"I...Ayano wishes to wear what you like her to wear, Azuma-sama. To please you." She says sheepishly, blushing under his intense soul-searching gaze.

Silence.

"Do you know what would truly please me?" Finally speaking after a long stillness, Yunoki leans down to breathlessly pose the question directly into Ayano's ear.

In the cold, empty corridor, hidden away from the just emerging moonlight where they would not be disturbed by any of the museum visitors, Yunoki places an outstretched arm over her shoulder, gently pressing her small frame to the side of the cove's interior stone wall.

Ayano closes her eyes tightly as she begins to tremble, unaware how to react to these new sensations her idolized fiancé was giving her.

After a few short moments that seem to last forever in the still night air, a cool breeze whips over her. Ayano had not realized that her Azuma-sama had gone and returned in the quick span of time her heart had filled every second with anxious palpitations.

Her eyes still tightly closed, she feels his thin musical fingers play  
elegant notes upon each cheek as he would on his flute the '_Pavane pour une Infante défunte_' until those elegant fingers lift her chin upward in the eloquent silence.

"It would please me tremendously, Ayano, if you would just look me in the eye." He says rather quietly. Not toying, nor angry, not aggressive, nor perversely, but honestly, sincerely, it is said.

Ayano's eyes snap open as she gasps, able to fully meet those eyes for the first time since they met as children, for there was something urgently pleading in them not to turn away this time, as if he were begging Ayano to stay within their golden pools.

"I don't want you to be frightened of me. I don't wish for you to be in awe of me or adore me unconditionally. I just need you to understand me." Yunoki whispers in hushed tones of humility as he takes her hands in his, looking directly into her wide eyes as he offers her a single fresh rose bloom that he had just acquired from the nearby flower shop across the way.

"I deserve nor want for anything more. You should never live your life under someone else's thumb—your freedom stolen away by another's wishes other than your own." He says in all seriousness, knowing firsthand how restricting that kind of nonexistent existence felt.

"We are equal, Ayano. We've lived the same life, the same story, Prince and Princess, puppets and pawns in our respective illustrious families' hands." Yunoki wrings his own hands for a moment, recalling tormented years of entrapment gone by before a peaceful calm settles upon his stately features once again.

"I want **you** to like what **you **like, Ayano. Not what you think **I** like. Every day of the rest of **your** life, I want **your **freedom to be **yours**. Ayano, surprise me every day anew. That's what freedom means to me..." Yunoki's lowered tones had not a trace of instability in them as his voice softens thoughtfully, eyes reaching for her.

"Because you're just like me, Ayano, except..." Yunoki dramatically pauses in this soulful admission

"... **you **are the stronger one." Ayano's eyes open even wider with a small gasp, hands flying to cover her mouth.

"In Vienna, in my hour of need, you've proved me that. Through my trials, you were my rock, Ayano, my inspiration to find myself..." Yunoki trails off thoughtfully, pausing in turn to seek out the moon who was hiding her brilliance beneath the cloudy darkness, though her light has always been there, waiting for him to glimpse her beauty... and embrace her...

As he physically does to his real 'Diana', taking her suddenly in his arms and kissing her passionately with all the emotion he had kept stifled inside all this time, against the darkened historic backdrop.

For she, unlike the capricious moon, never turned her light of love away from him. She selflessly gave him a special, strong, and enduring love that could last throughout the rights and wrongs, through the days and nights of his life's ups and downs...

"I've been searching for someone to believe in—someone who, through the mystery of my truth and the life of my lies, still wishes to be a part of my multicolored destiny." Yunoki lets her go and turns away, he the one now not able to meet Ayano's steady gaze in his shame for all he's put her through.

Sensing his need for an answer, it was Ayano's turn to speak her mind for once.

"I adore rainbows." Ayano simply states, crossing over to where Yunoki stood. She's astonishes both of them by taking his bony hand in hers and openly gazing with love up into his face as she kisses its palm, pressing his hand over her lips.

"I not only wish to be part of it, Azuma, but** I** **will **change destiny itself until the **true you **is revealed to me."

Quiet, unobserved, reserved Takashina Ayano has her own metamorphosis revelation in this moment of her most passionate speech. Yunoki Azuma's hopeful eyes widen in much pleased wonder. For not only did his Ayano believe in him still after all this time—she suddenly excited him as well.

_Like refracted light plays on a faceted gemstone._

The same illuminated light that always had been dangling before his clouded eyes, taunting him, just beyond his grasp, Yunoki Azuma could feel that lifelong sought after glow that pierces through the darkness of his lonely heart's nights now within his reach...

He takes the hands clasping the bouquet in them in his, as the young woman's eyes bravely meet his, with no trace of fear. Yunoki gazes down at her with an enlightened genuine smile.

"So I have found the true freedom I've been longing for, Ayano. It took me a long time to see that I had it before me all the while. If I had just opened my eyes, my Diana was there beside me all this time." Yunoki humbly bows his head to the small girl, finally realizing the depth of his emotion for her now. No longer having the feeling of being pushed, prodded, predicted and forced to marry her for his family's sake, he finds he was ready for his rebellious heart to long for that very thing himself.

_The true me has found what true freedom means at last..._

"It is you." He says, bestowing a kiss upon her delighted cheek.

"Name that day, Ayano." Yunoki Azuma's ever-changing heart comes to rest in its waxing and waning, for he finds every road led back to her soft beauty, by way of the moonlight.

And it wasn't so dull and unwanted a road to travel after all.

In raptures, the colors that leap bountifully from her brush to canvas were a part of Ayano's soul, just as multifaceted as the life of her adored Azuma-sama, whose varied shades she wished to paint for the rest of her days.

The watercolors of the transparent sky spread on the winds of her heart, yearning to open new and colorful possibilities each day.

Her eyes fill with joyous tears as the dream of all her long years of patient waiting was coming true at last. She instantly understood the promise Azuma-sama was offering her—a forever spent discovering each day full of mysteries anew with all their exciting twists and turns. Days—and nights—that vowed to be as innumerably complex as the hundred thousand stars that would surely illuminate their celestial voyage into the far reaches of the universe in search of Yunoki Azuma's everchanging story where he's now found volumes of untold chapters yet unwritten, sleeping within his Ayano.

Perhaps there he will find even the answer to the most burning question of his life that has been revolving about his solitary heart for years aimlessly without his yearned for brightest star, the center of his universe whose gravitational pull would keep him close even as rotations of his dreams promise to take them both to faraway yonders. Yunoki Azuma knew now that up 'til where the wide sky extends, the complex watercolors of Ayano's unfailing shine will be his answer to:

_Where Exists the Goddess of My Moon?_


	57. Chapter 57 - Unchangeable World

**Chapter 57: "Unchangeable World"**

The very city of Salzburg vibrates with the spirit of Mozart, palpable at every turn of the historical cobblestone lanes of the Getreidgasse that date back to Roman times.

Unaware of brother and best friend's life changing decision being made outside the GeburtshausMuseum, Hihara Kazuki and Yunoki Miyabi were exploring the house where the legendary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and his family lived within for 26 of his formative years from 1747-1792.

Almost as soon as the pair step through the antique doorway ,renovated into a museum in 1880, the unsuspecting museum guide is awakened from his drowsy nap by the commotion of the sudden influx of noisy visitors, all wishing to purchase Geburtshaus Museum passes from him, even though the museum was supposed to be closed for the night already.

It was rather unusual for more than a courteous pair or two to just walk into the shrine of Salzburg's most famous citizen off the street at this time of night. Most visitors came during the weekends, or schoolchildren on field trips during the week—but most, if not all, during the daylight hours before the usual closing time of 5:30 PM.

_So who are all of these people here now? _Yes, he had agreed to wait for two or three Mozarteum university students for a few minutes of quiet study for their academic reports of Mozart's instruments on display on the first floor and perhaps a quick peek at the second floor of Mozart's birthplace that was devoted to numerous dioramas (miniature stages) illustrating the theater history of Mozart's operas.

_But it was not meant to be like this_! The flabbergasted aging Mozart aficionado, running the place alone tonight, was more than a trifle put out by the deluge of questions, from biographical dissertation queries on one historical Amadeus tidbit or another, interest to where the  
location of certain displayed instruments or historical paintings, to where the museum's restroom was located.

"Ackt! Gute Nacht!" The elderly Austrian gentleman cries out in  
frustration as these inexplicable late-night visitors continue to rush in all about him like a tidal wave, the tired man beside himself with befuddlement as to how to deal with them all on his own, this being one of the largest crowds gathered in the shrine simultaneously in years.

"So this is where Mozart himself was born?! His family actually **lived** here on the third floor and it was called 'Hagenauer House' because their neighbor was a toymaker and he owned the place? Too cool!" Reading a snippet of the pamphlet of the guided tour laying on the counter, Hihara Kazuki with as enthused about this visit as he was about most other subjects he encountered. So that called for clapping his hands together and near jumping up and down in joy for him about now!

"Wow! Look at all these pictures on the wall! Is this what Mr. Amadeus really looked like, sir?" Miyabi was a bit more maturely subdued, or at least tried to be, as she points to the memorabilia  
adorning the walls, soaking them all up eagerly.

"...Ahem...**That, **little girl**, **is **the** unfinished oil **painting **"Mozart at the Piano" painted by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's brother-in-law, Joseph Lange, in the year 1789." The museum caretaker imparts rather snootily, as his heavily accented, yet well spoken, English was not at all welcoming to the question, but neither Hihara nor Miyabi picked up on the man's disdain of them in their innocent excitement.

"I guess it don't matter what you look like, as long as you can write good stuff like that!" Hihara makes an attempt at a joke, but it falls flat on the sourpuss man. Miyabi herself fights the urge to correct her bubbly boy's grammar. After all, a future schoolteacher 'don't' talk that way, and she usually dropped a sweet hint when Hihara Kazuki's elocution required adjustment.

"I could not say..." was the tepid, unfriendly retort in between the elderly gentleman's harried answering of bells rung by customers at the various gift shop and question booths.

"Do you need some help here, sir? I wouldn't mind at all and I have a lot of experience running my own tea shop back in Yokohama—" Miyabi offers politely, seeing the man in need of assistance and always ready with a helping hand and smile on her face when it came to serving others.

"We really wouldn't mind doing the leg work for you, Sir! We even know something of Mozart history and would love to show people around! Really, Miyabi-chan is an expert on the guy! She's been studying him majorly at her music school." Hihara boasts of his little partner's musical IQ, he knowing firsthand, as a Seiso OB, the plummy girl's enthusiasm for Mozart knowledge.

"Nein! Nein! Nien! Unmöglich! (_No, no, no! Impossible!_)" The man refuses stubbornly, no smiles to be found on his face, as he huffs and puffs up the stairs yet again at a beckoning call and bell.

Hihara and Miyabi exchange a look, both feeling pity for the overrun older gent, and somehow responsible for the crowd that had gathered to the museum at such a late hour due to their impromptu music cavalcade outside.

"The music! Yeah, that's it!" Hihara shouts out suddenly, Miyabi looking at him with big, bright inquisitive eyes.

"How about some 'Alla Turka" to liven things up?! I bet it'll gather everyone here on the floor's gift shop to make it easier for the old guy!" Hihara Kazuki plots brilliantly, lifting his trusty trumpet to his lips and blowing loudly in perfect rhythm the frantic furious tune filled with happiness and fun.

Immediately, the caretaker comes racing down the steps again to see what all the noisy ruckus was about in the first floor's main hall.

"Vat in heavens name are you doing making all that noise in here, young man?!" He yells above the high volume trumpet's notes of, what some say, was Mozart's finest piece.

"He's playing to attract all of the visitors to stay on this floor, so you don't have to keep running up and down the stairs, you see?" Miyabi reassures in her cute way.

"Das ist lächerlich (_that is ridiculous_)—!" The man was beginning to protest again, thinking up an argument against the beaming, smiling girl and her pesky trumpeting boyfriend, but his English was slipping in this moment of frustration.

"No 'das buts' about it! 'If he plays it, they will come.' I always wanted to say that." Miyabi giggles at her own film funny, as Hihara continues to blow with all his musical might.

"Nein! Halt, Kinder! Bitte—" _(No, stop, children! Wait!)_ The custodian was about to throw the young pair out on their ear when the clamor of feet comes one after another, down the staircase to give audience before Hihara, just as he said.

Before our happy go lucky OB had finished his second refrain of 'Alla Turka', every visitor was accounted for and listening intently to the skilled trumpet rendition of the work of the man to whom the shrine was dedicated to.

"You are truly talented, mein freund!" A boy about Miyabi's age calls out when Hihara pauses for breath

"You would be ein großer Erfolg (_a big hit_) at the MozarteumMusicUniversity we all attend nearby!" Another teen, fresh into college, cries out as he and a few of his young friends enter the museum's front door.

"You kids are music students?" At the ripe old age of nearly 20, Hihara asks, always happy to meet fellow music lovers.

"Ja, Ja! (_yes, yes_!) Let us all play a rondo together!" A third  
Mozarteum student comes up with the idea, eager to get into the spirit that this foreign friend had begun. The trio soon produce their own instruments of violins and viola to start playing a medley of Mozart's symphony #25 and then #40 and Allegro Requiem pieces from memory.

For another half-an-hour or so, Hihara and his new friends play a montage of Mozart minuets. The rest of the visitors were well impressed by all the young mens' collective outstanding skill and musical prowess, as was the custodian.

No longer begrudging this overtime working night, the older man soon grew to appreciate the sound of his beloved Mozart being played by the lively trumpet accompanied by the strings of his new acquaintances, for the music was so lively and cheerful it couldn't help but put smiles on the faces of everyone listening. More than a few euros were lavishly spent on the Mozart souvenirs on the first floor that most Salzburg residents refrained from spending their money on, leaving that mostly for the tourists.

"That was great! You guys are really going to go far! Just keep playing the music with all your feeling and never change your love for it! Oh, and give me a call if you ever do find that lead on ole' Amadeus' missing 'Trumpet Concerto'!" Hihara was a natural when it came to encouraging children, for he would never outgrow being one himself, and that was the true beauty of the secret behind Hihara Kazuki's never changing heart.

With a wave goodbye, the rest of the visitors begin to move on too, as Hihara plays a good night serenade quietly in the background as the patrons depart. All pledge to return again though, for the friendly young man and the bright-eyed young girl hailing from over the ocean reintroduced to them an enthusiasm for music that was inspiring to any generation. Through their mutual love of music, anyone could see the closeness the pair had plainly.

Especially the elderly caretaker who had come, over the last half hour, to be quite fond of the giddy chattering of Mozart trivia Kleines Mädchen (_ little girl) _and her trumpet wielding Schatz (_sweetheart) _whose skills at a bright contagious smile matched that of his vivacious instrument's happy expression.

"You have made this a very best and memorable night for not just my visitors, but for a tired old man as well. For some reason, I don't feel so tired anymore this night, and I know I owe it all to you. Vielen Dank.(_ thank you very much)" _The elderly gentleman whose face was wrinkled with exhaustion, old and worn when they first arrived, now wore a pleasant look of wrinkles from smiles and laughter and joy.

"Dan...ke! It was fun for us to!" Hihara tries his tongue at German as he waves his trusty trumpet way up high in the air, giving Miyabi his familiar wink and a wide Kazuki grin as the two prepare to leave.

"I know a special future awaits both of you! In our short time together, you have taught myself and those students so many great things about music we might never have known had we not met you. You will make a wonderful teacher, mein freund, I have no doubt. Danke, for the precious memories your music made tonight." He bows reverently, making Hihara redden and Miyabi giggle with delight at the scene, and she squeezes Hihara's arm proudly.

"It was great meeting you, too! I know you must be tired but... can we have a quick look at the souvenirs before you lock up, sir? I've got a friend who'll flip if he knew we were here and didn't buy him a piece of Mozart memorabilia." Hihara, as usual, thinks of others first and foremost, he knowing that Shimizu would be super uber disappointed to find the shop closed early before he arrived back from his itinerary tour of the Basilika, churches and Abbeys.

"Guteguten, take your time, mein lieben freunde ( _my dear friends_). I'll be clearing up the other room for a few minutes, while you decide what you like." The old man departs the room with a renewed bounce in his step.

* * *

"Precious memories...huh?" Hihara thoughtfully murmurs under his breath as he hovers over the displays, watching Miyabi try to choose between a cute little porcelain bust of the man of the hour or a fancy framed bookmark with fun Mozart facts and title list of his choice pieces.

"Hmm? Kazuki-san?" Miyabi inattentively answers, her mind still crossed between the bust and now a key chain that played Eine Klein or some other random Mozart piece when the button was pressed.

"Whee!" Just about to push the button, Miyabi squeals as Hihara suddenly wraps her up in a big bear hug. She does her best not to drop the Mozart bust statue as her feet are literally lifted off the ground.

"Kazuki-san?!" She questions, safely placing the statue on the counter as he puts her down too.

"Sorry! But...whenever you say my name, I just **have** to hug you!" Hihara looks down in embarrassment of his own simpleness.

"I guess I'm not very good at saying the words, but—" Hihara begins to try to say what he wants to say anyway, smiling down apologetically into her big green eyes. "Let's make those precious memories...together, Miyabi-chan! You have such a bright and wonderful smile, it really makes me feel I can reach for my dreams to teach others to love music as I love it! Every day spent with you is the best day ever! And I think I'll feel this way forever..." Hihara trails off, the collection of heartfelt sentences put together more than the high strung young man can take without going emotional. A week of pent-up worry in caring for Yunoki, seeing all his beloved friends together again and blossoming love for her, all intersecting at the thought of 'making precious memories' before a single one passes the sentimental young man by...

"Oh, my darling! Don't cry!" Miyabi suddenly cries out, not bearing to see the usually happy boy on the verge of tears.

Standing on her tippy toes, she's just able to reach it his trembling lips, and she plants a sweet kiss right on them.

"**You **make my world a happy place. You're my dream come true, my precious treasure whose sunshine wraps around my heart every day." Miyabi, in turn, wraps her arms around the elder boy as if he were the younger one in need of her comfort.

And she would have it no other way. No stoic, emotionless clods for her. No poets or Nobel laureate wordsmiths would ever match her Kazuki-san, even when he didn't always say the right words at the right time, he meant well all the time and showed it in that true Hihara Kazuki style 24/7.

Miyabi then totally surprises Hihara by grabbing the silver trumpet at his side and starts to play a few shaky bars of 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' from memory. Her cheeks puffing from the effort, she glances up from beneath long hopeful lashes breathlessly.

Her eyes, vivid and excited in her first trumpet playing attempt before anyone, Miyabi bites her lip, waiting for his approval anxiously.

"Miyabi-chan! When did you learn—?!" Hihara wipes away the tears from his eyes, all sadness flown away with the astonishment clear on his face. He knew she played the piano extremely well, but when did she take up the trumpet?

"It's because you've been my inspiration! I love it when you play the trumpet. I can't live a moment without your sunshine! And I want to be a part of that sunshine now, too, Kazuki-san! So I've been practicing every day! Every note's happy sounds remind me of you! I did it because...because I want to be with you every moment... for the rest of my life..." The last words trail off in a softer tone, she blushing under her own tender admission as she holds 'ole Silver' close.

"You do? Really?" Hihara swallows, proud, awed and touched concurrently, on the verge of tears again, but this time, tears of joy.

"Every second we're apart, I want to be with you again!" Miyabi's hopeful eyes mirrored Hihara's, with her own happy tears sparkling.

"As soon as you leave the room, I'm lonely." Miyabi giggles through their reflective tears, she playfully cuddling his arm.

"That's funny." Hihara's emotional eyes spill over. "Now that I think about it, whenever you're not there, I miss you too, like there's a hole in my soul. You're the only one for me." Feeling loved for himself at last, Hihara dispels the tears they both burst into a fit of giggles.

"I can't believe you learned the trumpet... for me! Now we can play together! Miyabi-chan, you're the best!" Hihara squeezes her little hands tightly in his.

"I love you, my darling!" And she throws herself bodily on him in an intense embrace to kiss his shocked lips, Miyabi's cry of love is suddenly accompanied by the loud orgel of 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' from the keychain that had been unconsciously snagged on the front of Hihara's vest.

Pulling apart from the embrace, both start laughing uncontrollably at the ruined romantic moment as they try in vain to remove the keychain hook from Hihara's front chest. They were laughing so loudly that the elder gent returns to the room to find them chuckling until tears were racing down both their happy cheeks.

"So it is a keychain you've decided on? You may have it for your freund, on me." He generously offers, but the joke of the keychain really being 'on Hihara' causes another fit of uncontrollable giggles to erupt—because happy laughter was music to any young lovers' ears.

"More like on me!" The keychain finally gets unstuck after much prodding and poking fun of Miyabi's industrious little digits.

Hihara gives the now friendly Geburtshaus custodian a farewell thumbs up and a wink as he holds close both the keychain and Miyabi. Her plum curls flowing, she leans into her darling, knowing that no matter how much time passes every second of it would be a precious moment spent together inspiring others with music in Hihara Kazuki's wonderful Unchangeable World of joy...


	58. Chapter 58 - Fun Days & Fireworks Nights

**Chapter 58: "Funny Days & Fireworks Nights"**

Not so far down the lane, another pair finds that the Getreidgasse was indeed the correct street to haunt for not only the lowdown on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also for the best shopping in all of Altstadt.

Sure, Mozart had his inspired finger on the pulse of Salzburg, the town of his birth, where museums and exhibits were aplenty, but there were really loads of other places and events to see and do beyond the prestigious composer's influential reach.

And those were the exact places Fudou Shoma intended to go! He had had it just about up to here with all this type of stuck up claptrap. After that impromptu concert in that dusty old amphitheater, Felsen-why-chew-something or the other, the energetic drive in Shoma wanted to cut loose and see the nightlife around closeup.

Sure, he had gotten a kick out of playing his bass guitar on the ominous stage in some creepy old decrepit way, but heck! This was supposed to be a vacation!

And Takatou Mio was easily swayed to feel the exact same way. Ever since she first laid eyes on him in 2nd Year high, Mio had fallen madly in love with Fudou Shoma, par for the course of this flighty young girl. But that budding feeling became exacerbated when, back in her second term at Seiso Academy, some of the other teenage girls were bullying little Mio for, shall we say, not being as well developed as they. That's when the confident opinionated older boy had  
overheard and stood up for the poor, picked on little girl.

His sharp tongue had easily sent the mean-spirited prissy chicks packing. He openly spoke his mind about 'size not meaning anything, except that it probably all went down there instead of their brains!' And then, to add insult to injury of the deserving berated trio of female witches, Fudou-senpai kept going with: 'But at least brains never sag.'

From that moment forward, Takatou Mio adored her vocal hero more and more, growing every day since.

Now, running down the cobblestone main street, with her hand tightly gripped in his, Mio loved him increasingly with each passing second. What virile young man wouldn't appreciate attention like that? Shoma's ego didn't mind being worshiped one bit. Of course, their new feelings for one another were only aided by his older brother  
being hooked and reeled in by Mio's best friend and constant  
companion's hazy grey eyes.

Yosuke saw quite a bit of his 'teacher's pet,' on and off campus. Mio and Shoma, and Nao and Yosuke were seen together on 'unofficial' double dates often. But unlike his flirtatious brother, Shoma was not looking for real love—he was more absorbed in his guitar playing and getting together his band. He may have seemed uncaring, but Mio found him, nonetheless, exciting and attractive. It may have all started out as merely a dare from his fellow band members to get a date for the dance and subsequent fireworks night show after.

And who was easier to ask than the cute little girl who was constantly following him around like a pet always underfoot, revering her hero 'Sho-chan?'

But something about Mio's sweet, squeaky voice and sad sea of pale blue-green eyes that needed him piqued blustery Shoma's attention. He did not mind her svelte figure one bit. He never saw what other guys saw in hourglass figure's jiggling mounds and much preferred a sleek, petite woman himself. And he made the mistake of honestly telling her so one day, Mio then turning to a puddle of clingy butter ready to melt on his piece of hot toast henceforth.

Despite his better judgment, the navy-blue haired young man kept the chattering, adoring waif around him. Not only because she bolstered his ego with her every moment of hero worship, but also because something about her fired his excitement at the same time he felt comfortable having her around.

The irreverently stubborn, noisy side of him was always able to say and do anything—and Mio didn't seem to mind his lack of social graces at all. She was always ready, with a pleased giggle, not once trying to openly amend his ways or his dedication to his band, or his spontaneous drive, or his unhinged loud mouth that so often got him into trouble with others.

But day by day, Mio's abiding devotion altered Shoma's psyche little by little. He eventually came to enjoy having her around, looking for her to show up anywhere he went, despite himself. Her tiny hand clasped tightly in his came to feel so darn right.

And now, looking up into her tall partner's eyes, Mio knew that all the multiple crushes she's had on various boys over the years paled in comparison to the exciting hunk she found in Sho-chan. Now, if only she could get his short attention span to stay on her for more than a few terse seconds...

* * *

"Wow...Look at those babies!" Shoma's low voice cries out loudly as he and she come to a screeching halt in their street race before a certain colorful shop window.

The Musikhaus Pühringer was printed on the signpost marquee hanging from the Institutional Getreidgasse Music Shop, established in 1910, to sell not only all kinds of classical and musical instruments of all types and sizes, but also a large selection of electronics, exotic decor, dangling floral strings, and other eclectic whatnots hanging from ceiling to scattered messes artfully on the floor.

Leaning in the window's display was something that caught Fudou Shoma's eye immediately. "I'll be a sec, Pata2! It's just what I've been looking for!"

He unceremoniously ditches the girl's hand and dashes into the shop door, bell ringing. Mio watches through the colorfully decorated window how Shoma's eyes lit up like fireworks the moment the shopkeeper showed him to the object of what she supposed was his sudden interest.

The dark blue-haired twenty-year-old reverently takes hold of the hand-carved four-string bass guitar that had some sort of prestigious pedigree from the look of the way Shoma was caressing and handling it, making Mio wish she could exchange places with the instrument.

Mio's little paws were on the window curiously as she peeks in when Shoma seemed so totally absorbed in speaking to the shopkeeper, as if they were arguing over the description of the instrument.

Sighing, she bobs up and down, trying to get his attention for him to remember that this was their date, and that she was patiently waiting for him, alone in the cold outside. She purses her lips as he turns his back on her, almost purposely, as he was so engrossed with the  
shopkeeper, pointing to something hanging on that wall that Mio couldn't quite see.

Sighing again as she unclenches her little fists, Mio tries to smile as Shoma's enthusiasm takes him away from her into another realm his thoughts often focused on—something other than her. His music, his dedication, his passion—she many times hoped his interest would steer in her direction, but it never did. Her brow was a bit perturbed at being ignored as she watches his hands pet the guitar's smooth casing lovingly.

Yes, she was glad for his discovery, but Mio needed attention, too! She bites her lip and wanders into the shop, not realizing how shivering from the cold she had become, for Shoma's 'sec' had turned into the better side of 10 minutes, without a single glance at her through the window to warm the cockles of her heart.

"Sho-cha—" In miffed impatience at being ignored, Mio begins to call behind the front window curtain that her boyfriend and the shopkeeper's legs were sticking out beneath, when something in his tone, luckily catches her ear before she continues and before he hears her entrance into the shop.

"Come on! How much?! I'll pay you anything!" Despite his fervor, at first Mio is not surprised, knowing Shoma's penchant for guitar collecting, in spite of his limited funds.

But as he continues to argue with the shopkeeper, Mio begins to wonder...

"But, sir, that is part of the Pühringer's Music Around the World decor! It is not an item for sale." The man's perplexed voice could be heard behind the curtain where the pair were haggling.

"Well, then, I won't take the bass if you won't let me have them, and that's my final offer."

Mio's little eavesdropping brow creases, trying to imagine what Sho-chan would so badly want beyond the guitar—even more than the guitar in question itself—that the shopkeeper wouldn't sell him.

"All right, all right. You drive a hard bargain, young foreigner. Though I have no idea what price to charge you for such a thing!" The man begins to capitulate, as he seems to be struggling to take something down from the ceiling behind the curtain causing a swishing, rattling sound to come to her ears.

_Shake shake shake!_

"Well, it is kind of a special present for my, you know...girl." That was all Shoma needed to say. Mio's face colors brightly as she quickly turns and races back out of the front of the store.

"Oh, it's nice to see young people in love these days!" The shopkeeper emerges from the curtain just to see the door close, while the distracted young man nods back at him.

"Yeah, I guess so." Shoma's voice betrayed a tinge of uncomfortable shyness that was, for him, both different and new, as he pays the man and turns to leave.

Outside, red-cheeked and huffing, Mio didn't have much of a chance to glance at the display window before Shoma reappears from the shop's front door.

"Sho-chan!" She cries out, trying to disguise her guilt at sneaking in, and spying on his 'surprise gift' conversation.

"Pata2? You okay?" He asks, dropping the newly bought guitar case on the sidewalk as if it were nothing, to take her shoulders in worry instead.

"Yup! Just...waiting here for you!" She breathes in white puffs, giving a little white lie with a wide smile, under reddened cheeks.

"Yeah...sorry about that, but...I got ya something! Close your eyes." Shoma orders playfully, while his hands still clasped her shoulders.

"Oooh, I love surprises!" Mio shuts her eyes tightly and he smirks at how cute she looked, with her fists balled and her mouth puckered in anticipation.

**_Shake shake shake!_**

_That sound again!_

Mio can't help but giggle in excitement as Shoma's big, strong fingers leave her shoulders to wrap around her tiny fisted digits and pry them open—a bit none-too-gently—as a pair of foreign objects are stuck into each palm's grip.

"Sho-chan? What is it? Can I look yet?" Mio asks, beside herself with giddy impatience to see what her hunky guy just placed in her curious hands.

"No, not with your eyes. Use your ears." He says, rather enigmatically, as he removes his new mahogany bass guitar from its case. "Shake them."

With her eyes still closed, Mio obeys and starts to shake the two  
objects in her hands. The rhythmic sounds emanating from them was both musical and fun. She was unable to keep her eyes shut any longer as she continues to shake her presents in perfect time with his guitar strings' melody.

Her gaze is rewarded by a pair of maracas in her hands—a picture of an exploding flower upon each one reminded her of the fireworks night on their first date.

"Oh! Now, I can play music, too!" Mio enthusiastically shakes first one maraca, and then the other in rhythm with Shoma's guitar playing. Her big, happy smile from ear to ear gave him great pleasure.

"That's right! I thought you might wanna play your new maracas for Dysnomia's new Latin themed album we're putting together to release next year." Shoma begins the invite as Mio's eyes bulge wide as her hands freeze the maracas medley midair.

_Is Sho-chan really asking me to join his beloved band? Does he really want little, no talent Takatou Mio to play with him and his precious guitar? Me? _

"Play with Dysnomia? Play with your band?!" Mio's voice was as small as her belief in herself to rise to such a new challenge. She knew practically nothing of music, nor playing with a band—just that she liked to listen to one.

"Yes, you, Pata2." Shoma stops strumming his guitar for a minute to place a large fingered hand on Mio's trembling cheek. "Part of my band, part of my world, part of my life. Can't you see, Mio? I **want you** to be part of my everything." With lowered eyelids and low voice even lower and uncharacteristically huskier, Fudou Shoma surprises even himself with these forward, honest words, never before imagined.

But something about this place—this adventure—had set a romantic firework off in his once prosaic heart, for love. As he digs into his pocket, he produces a hard fought for garland and drapes the red silk blooms across Mio's head when he suddenly grabs her waist and twirls her about. The surprised maracas in her hands swish happy sounds in harmony with her yelp of joy.

"There! I knew they'd suit you perfect! And Yosuke always said I have no sense of art!" He smirks with a self-aware look behind his eyes as he pats her on the head. Mio's wide eyes grow even larger, for she was too stunned by the older boy's sudden confession.

_To be part of his world? His everything? Sho-chan wants me?_

It was all Mio ever hoped to hear—more than she ever dreamed! To have her guy not only notice and pay attention to her, but even more important, to want her to be part of his beloved band! It made her feel so wanted, so needed, so complete.

This was no longer merely another one of her crushes—she knew it. This was the real thing. Something inside of her starts shaking at the thought, which in turn, makes the maracas in her hands begin to play music.

Catching her reflection for a second in the music shop's window, she smiles at her hair, embellished now by a faux spray of fuchsia, and pink pansies, her maracas continue to shiver, giving a perfect rhythmic intro for her heart into the music world she never fantasized to enter.

**_His _**_world of music._

The one he wanted to make Mio a part of. She revels in his guitar strings that so easily played melody to her happily shaking harmony. Tapping his feet, moving his body in time, nodding enticingly for her to join in his rhythm—his strumming now combines with her percussion backup, when in their hearts, fireworks excitement set off into the cool November air. The pair of musicians made quite a pretty musical scene, laughing and playing upon Salzburg's famed Altstadt Getreidgasse like a pair of kids in love.

With the pledge side by side now, the sounds of their music begin to play, as Fudou Shoma and Takatou Mio together intermingle the palpitating rhythm with the promise for other Funny Days and Fireworks Nights to come.


	59. Chapter 59 - DifferenceBetweenKindness &

**Chapter 59: "A Piece of the Sky"  
**

A decidedly different atmosphere takes us a far cry from the excited sights and sounds left behind on the Getreidgasse. A more adult atmosphere, though muted, that never lacked for attention, but maybe still was searching for a more convincing genuine kind of assurance...

_Where are we going with this? _The young woman with dark charcoal hair could worry the gray into those locks this night, for she was not referring to traveled physical location. Moreover, it was the address of her heart that begged the question.

_Stop thinking into things too deeply, Nao. But I'm not petty like other girls. I've prided myself on not being like everyone else... And yet when I'm with him..._

When the rest of the students at the Linden dorm started calling her 'Teacher's Pet,' Kobayashi Nao was more than aware that Fudou Yosuke was older and wiser (at the ripe old age of 23) than any of the immature boys in class. He was no longer merely a college student trainee at Seiso, but a full-fledged teacher now.

And he was an out and out flirt.

She knew he was smooth and stylish and way too popular with all the young ladies he toyed with, but there was something kind and gentle that the tomboy in the tough girl could never explain. The tawny brown haired teacher had an inexplicable softness in his grayish green eyes that mesmerized her every time he spoke, rainbows born in each moment of dreams Nao didn't even realize she was searching for in them. Whether mathematics, philosophy, art or physics, Yosuke had a quality of tone to his voice as well, that felt so warm, attentive and  
inviting whenever he called you "my dear." Who could not want to be taught by him?

Tough guy Kobayashi Nao, who didn't fall in love at the drop of a hat, like a certain little friend of hers, was learning the lessons of love from the soothing voiced teacher in quiet ways every day since he  
arrived at Seiso and began gently tutoring her and Mio and anyone else in the dorm who cared to listen to the older college student/teacher in training's wide array of worldly experience.

Nao respected that responsible mature quality in the man so much more than any other man she'd ever met before. So generous was he with his time and vast knowledge and inherent gentility, many of the feminine dorm roommates had openly fallen for their charming  
resident dorm chaperone/friendly adviser's winning charms.

And that, despite her best efforts, included hard-nosed Kobayashi Nao. She didn't know when it first happened exactly, she could never pinpoint the exact day or moment like other girls could, when her jaded heart gave way to the flirtatiously poetic educator in training. She had tried in vain to keep her heart hidden, but by the time Fudou Yosuke graduated college and was ready to assume his promised role as full-time Seiso English teacher, Nao had unwittingly completed the book of 'Falling in Love' and was unwillingly beginning its sequel, titled: 'Winning Love'.

It didn't take long to read through these chapters, for Fudou Yosuke already had developed special feelings for the one strong-minded young woman who didn't throw herself at him, the one girl who was self-possessed enough to chase her own mind and her education for her future more than chasing down whims and silly raucous boys.

Nao's genuine honesty impressed the young educator. The fact that she didn't fall for him, like every other girl the French educated man paid attention to, no matter how hard he tried to flirt, intrigued him.

And then when he gave up one day believing himself too distant in age, too forbidden teacher/student compromised, too unlucky in love, some months later, while sincerely helping Nao and Mio in their studies, that's when she did.

_A good woman is a wonder of nature, a force to reckon with, yet  
indefinably sublime..._

The true romantic heart in Yosuke immediately felt a strong connection to the only girl who didn't primp or priss in class, the only young lady who was truly serious about finding her place in this world through the magic of hard work and intense learning.

And that's when the flagrantly amorous man became serious about her.

* * *

For as long as he could remember, Fudou Yosuke adored living smartly.

Smart clothes. Smart cars. Smart apartment. Smart job. Everything about the classy sophisticated man was smart—

Especially his girlfriend.

Now, Nao may not wish to admit their relationship as such, especially at the time they begin seeing one another. Nao was barely 18 and Yosuke, at 23, was her 3rd year English and Mathematics schoolteacher. Of course, anyone nitpicking at age would have to admit that Yosuke had just recently graduated college to become Seiso's brilliant and fresh new teacher.

But the student/teacher lines blurred irrevocably in both their eyes, especially since he interned at Seiso as Linden Hall dorm master for the year before he officially became 'Fudou-sensei.'

The intelligent scholar in Yosuke found the serious, studious girl just and righteous in all ways; the artist in him discovering her so caring and helpful to others it suitably painted her a tableau vivant, quite indescribably beautiful in his eyes.

So how could he not fall for her?

This was quite a change for the extremely popular with the ladies' young man who had played the field since the girls found his good looks and suave mood, even at an early age, appealing. And yet, since coming to Seiso, Yosuke had found his usually rampant _un rendez-vous_ schedule abstaining from dating anyone else in his quest to conquer the unobtainable Miss Kobayashi's heart.

A big step indeed for the former skirt chaser, especially considering that Nao did not show any sign of reciprocating in her new teacher's attraction until graduation day, when the tense situation of being 'Teacher's Pet' all year finally came to a head.

The normal tradition of yearbook signing took a turn for the romantic, when, amidst many apropos signings and poetic teacher-like encouragements, Fudou-sensei inscribed a special verse in Nao's Seiso yearbook:

'_Like the beach and the sands, _

_One endless as the other set adrift.._

_There's a difference between weakness and kindness... _

_Spending my small life on your shoreline's gift...'_

_Just a piece of the sky, adrift without your anchor, mon cherie, _

_Yosuke_

From the moment the thoughtful man had handed Nao back her yearbook, the light in his eyes told volumes of poetry unwritten. His glowing smile sparkled as he painted landscapes of beauty in the heart of a down-to-earth young woman newly awakened to this poignant portrait of love penned by a man who took pride in not shying away from her strength like most other males who encountered her strong-minded independent soul.

From that day on, Nao strove to understand the full meaning behind his written words. And in the process, she learned more of the hidden truth that beat within Fudou Yosuke every passing day...

* * *

"It's safe to land, _mon petit moineau_ (my little sparrow)." Yosuke's gentle voice calls Nao back to the painting that had triggered her thoughts as the pair stood before it. Something in the calming scene of a young girl standing on a white sandy beach looking longingly out of the unknown sea as the waves roll onto the beach, mercilessly taking the lost grains of sand away with the roaring tide, save for those who found safety on the higher ground of the sturdy rocks of the shoreline, intrigued her.

"Huh?" Nao shakes her drifting mind back to the reality of she and he visiting the Burgmuseum located at the foot of the Festeg Hohensalzburg Fortress on the Monchsberg peak district of the historical city. Yosuke had given up his beloved art museums in Vienna for her, and Nao thought it only fair to treat him now, taking a stab at one being open at this late night hour.

"You were a million miles away just now, my dear." His soft voice lowly teases in her ear as he pulls Nao closer to him when the female custodian, who had been kindly cajoled by the smooth talking teacher into allowing the pair to stay on at this late closing time hour, charges past, armed with a noisy vacuum cleaner and feather duster.

"Only that many grains of sand." Wishing she knew if his flirtations were for real, or just sea foam that would fade with the sunrise, Nao breathes into Yosuke's silky scarved chest, taking in his strong spicy scented cologne indulgently as he holds her close. She glances over his shoulder at the famed shoreline, feeling a connection to the illustration of the girl entranced by the sands ebbing slowly away... just like Nao felt right now...

"Come back to me, my pet." He literally puts his mouth to her ear, the rumble of the vacuum cleaner judged too deafening by his standards for anything less as his other hand dallies with the silky chiffon adorning her back. Though Nao was growing to welcome his attentions a tad more after Vienna, she still felt the amorous man's touches and breathy lip service just as pervading...and so much more provocative...

But Kobayashi Nao was no man's "pet".

"Did you see everything you wanted to see here?" A tad terse, Nao clears her throat, taking a step back as she snaps out of her entrancement of his voice, raising her own to be heard above the din as she wriggles away from his cloying embrace.

"Hmm?" Yosuke notes her hesitance, yet tilts his head as if he had not heard the girl's question, rather liking the feel of her in his arms more than any museum viewing.

"I said—" Nao takes the first step back, deliberately loosening herself from his grip, but in doing so nearly takes a tumble over her long skirt wrap in the back, Yosuke using the excuse of righting her to hold her again.

_Darn skirt! Why did I ever let the girls rope me into wearing this  
stupid monstrosity?!_

"—DID YOU SEE EVERYTHING YOU WANTED...here...?" Nao shouts a bit louder when the vacuum cleaner turns off mid-sentence, causing her face to burn red with shame for shouting so loudly in the empty hallowed hall, even until she echoed off its painting masterpiece hung walls.

"Everything." The innate flirt in Yosuke, feeling a bit more liberated since their stroll in Wien, can't help himself from amorously nuzzling Nao's short neck hair one more time before letting her escape his embrace.

"So... can we go?" Grounded Nao enjoyed a good painting or well-done statue as much as the next 18-year-old, but their hasty flight from Japan to Austria, their whirlwind visit of Vienna's Opera House and Naturihistoriches, and now Salzburg's many art museums starting with the Residenz Gallery, filled with all the Baroque art dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, then the Hellbrunner Strasse, replete with some of Europe's finest contemporary artworks, and ending with two nearby important museums left to make their way to at this time of night, mixed with jet lag and general exhaustion—Nao had had more than her share of art for the rest of her life!

But if she was planning to be involved in a long-term relationship with the lofty Fudou Yosuke, Nao had better get used to all these old musty exhibits and artist impressions! For this high-class culture was Yosuke's pride and joy, thatshe was sure of. But that didn't stop Nao from feeling worn out by the whirlwind of his true intentions towards her—or more in precisely—hers for him, as her burning wings itch to fly away, beyond the doubt and fear.

"I know it's rather chilled, but may we stroll the fortress grounds first before we leave, my dear?" He asks with a certain degree of hope and longing.

"Might make us too late to get to either the Rupertinum or the Spielzburg—or the Carolino Augusteum museum, for that matter." Wrapping her tongue around the foreign terms, Nao warns as she reads off the map the list of museums Yosuke had circled earlier that he wished to attend, unable to decide upon just one after she made the rash offer.

"Never mind them, tonight. There's something here you must see!" He says excitedly on a whim again, as he takes her hand and rushes Nao (_Not another one of your wild goose chases I hope_!) from the Burgmuseum after he generously tipped the grateful custodian woman, before the pair make one last trip up the steep mountain Festungsberg upon the funicular tram to the fortress itself.

At the peak of Monchsberg, one of Europe's mightiest castles proved so foreboding a sight that no enemy dared attack Salzburg's borders for a thousand years since its creation. Built on the FestungsbergMountainPeak at the behest of Archbishop Helfenstein in the year 1077, the Fortress stands 400 feet above the SalzachRiver below. And the Festung Hohensalzberg fortress has dominated the city skyline, offering an incredible view for over 900 years since.

"Indeed it does." Yosuke says with a semi-impressed air after reading a pamphlet he'd acquired on the short funicular tram journey concerning the historic edifice. Once disembarked, he and Nao begin to stroll through one of the largest medieval stone castles in all of Europe, once used as a holy sanctuary, military barracks, and now historic monument.

"This fortress has seen so much history! It says the highest point of the fortress is called the 'ReckTower' where battlement cannons were once installed to defend against the Ottoman Empire's invasion, staving off all attacks with the mere rumor of their high vantage point and sheer might! Imagine what it was like to live in those times!"

The literary historian in Nao was enthralled at his chance to glimpse book-learned history firsthand as Yosuke leads her up to the tall tower he knew his history major would appreciate.

Looking into her bright eyes, he tries to be as interested as she, but to his artistic temperament, the ancient medieval edifice was little more than an old run down collection of moldy concrete and rusty metal stone, cold in the brisk breeze.

"Yes. I am imagining. It must've been fairly trying to exist then without any of our modern conveniences, and certainly cold without heating equipment...I wouldn't relish being alive in those times." Warm-blooded Yosuke, who adored the more balmy French climate, comments idly beneath his smoky breath, continually patting together his chilled leather gloved palms as he gives his ever-present scarf an extra wrap around his long, exposed neck.

Nao, in her exhilarated state, did not even feel the temperature drop as the two ascended to the tower peak, but she shivers unconsciously the moment after he speaks, as her thoughts go sullenly morose of how different their interests really were, how artistically defined and  
cultured his, as opposed to how gray and plain and dull hers must seem to him, full of cobwebs and smelling of must, thus causing her sudden ill mood. She lived more in a realm of reality and historical facts than Yosuke's dreamy art world filled with storybooks and poetry could ever fit into.

"Oh, _mon chere_, are you not enjoying yourself? Forgive me. I thought this history tour would be to your liking. We could leave right now if –" Yosuke senses Nao's dampened tone, taking it that she was ready to abandon this frozen endeavor, his delicate painter's fingers chilled to the bone by now themselves, for the pair of visitors were atop a high fortress peak for all its thin cold air.

"No no no no! I'm having a great time! Thank you for thinking of me! Just look at this place!" Nao shakes off the depressing feeling of being on a separate plane as the man she unwillingly acknowledges she had fallen in love with. Instead, she puts all the enthusiasm she can muster into flinging her arms out and dashing into the cold wind on the high Reck Tower where an ancient bell had been refitted over the years to beam a red call light over the city.

Just like that brilliant beacon, Nao spreads her arms wide over the gorgeous scenic view below, embracing the Salzburg city Alpine laced vista with all the spirit she had been lacking the entire  
afternoon, hoping it would revive her somehow enough to enjoy the history all about her.

"Have you ever seen anything so glorious, Yosuke-san? **This** is living, breathing fine art!" Nao takes a deep lungful of cold air and rushes forward to greet the night's starry skyscape standing high atop the Reck Tower overlooking all of Salzburg's lovely offerings, from historic vaulted towers to holy Abbey tiers, to splendid fountains all set amidst the stately Alps majesty.

Letting go of her inhibitions, Nao releases all the pent-up uncertainty and repressed emotion her head had been spinning with for a long time now, ever since..._the first moment I heard his soft voice..._

"I am looking at a beautiful sight, indeed." The romantic man in Yosuke whispers to himself, his innards warming exponentially as he drinks in the dark young woman with the dark backdrop of the gorgeous city behind her with the numerous stars to illuminate her in their spotlight.

Yosuke is not surprised to find his art-loving attention, instead of taking in the breathtaking scenic view, to be rather drawn to Nao's breathtaking tall form, with her long legs mysteriously enshrouded in brown chiffon and satin skirts as they dash in a waltz to and fro on the small tower turret as if palpably feeling the music, the history, the  
romance of the city all intersecting below.

The thrill of the moment was making her unable to keep her feet still any longer with that nervous excitement itching to escape, even as she trips on the problematic flowing skirt yet again with her unaccustomed unsteady high heels.

"Look at how small those cars and people down there are! We must be pretty high up—! Ohh—!" Whether she stepped on that darn chiffon train again or the exhaustion of jet lag combined with heartfelt soul-searching, or perhaps merely some unseen object jutting from the tower's buttressed corners in the dark of night, but the girl's final gaze over the edge of the tall fortress wall was about to end Kobayashi Nao's career as both scholarly historian and Fudou Yosuke's inspirational creative muse, just as she was beginning it.

For the plunge hundreds of feet down from the Fortress Hohensalzburg's highest ledge would certainly be a fitting end for a tragic inamorata of medieval days yore...

**"NAO!"** Yosuke cries out, losing all his calm composure as he fearlessly races across the Reck tower to make a dauntless dive, heedlessly scratching his well tailored arms on the sharp stone tower ledge to catch the dizzily falling girl from her _ala mort_ descent. Her grasping hands manage to catch one end of his trademark silk scarf as it flies from his neck, his hands wildly lunging to grasp hold of the other end of the fading yellow fabric just in the nick of time. In one swift move, Yosuke utilizes the adrenaline rush to pull Nao back to the Fortress roof's safety with his delicate poet's hands that were blessedly strong when they needed to be, as the hero in him rises to the occasion.

Embracing Nao to his chest, Yosuke steadies her disoriented breathless spasms, pressing her dazed form to his chest protectively.

The pair remain in this tender pose for long stunned minutes as both try to regain the wind knocked out of them in the frantic life and death split second.

"You said my name." In an awestruck, almost incoherent way, Nao whispers finally, after a few endless moments spent in one another's desperate embrace under the brightly looming moonlight.

She, in her addled delirium, realizes that little uncanny factoid ever so clearly. Even more than feeling fear or pain that she'd almost killed herself, and subsequently him, in a tragic accident—her soul heard his voice calling out to her, as in a new and revealing light, eyes opening wide up at his gazing down lovingly all the while.

And for the first time in her life, not merely his 'little sparrow', Kobayashi Nao let herself go fully into that flighty realm she never delved into, usually considering it weak to indulge in such fancies.

For Yosuke had always addressed her, along with every other female in the school, since they first met, by the endearing, yet overly sugary phrase "My dear" (or in the French, "_mon cherie_").

Words Nao secretly repulsed as a condescending address, but never mentioned it before.

Until now.

"_Une rose parun tout autre nom sentirait aussi bon_...(A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet)...Nao, Nao, Nao, my beautiful Nao." Yosuke feels the tense fearful tears of the harrowing event of moments before build in his pounding chest until they fall with true emotion upon her face, her neck, down her heaving chest with the unbidden warmth of his unashamed emotion as he recites Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet famous line in the French tongue so ingrained in his romantic psyche.

"I'll say your name a hundred times on a hundred days for a hundred years. Just please don't ever try to leave me again, my beloved Nao! Now that my luck has finally turned._ Je taime_." He smiles through the tears, damning his ill fortune if it put her in this extreme danger, though at the same time blessing his good fortune, kissing her hands to his lips where they both discover his yellow scarf still tightly clenched in her white knuckled grip. Dispelling the tears, they both chuckle, until they find Nao not seeming to be able to let the scarf go.

Yosuke uses his gentle strength to tenderly pry her fingers open, kissing each digit as he does, until the scarf is finally freed.

"I've always loved your silk scarf. Heh, heh, heh." Nao laughs normally, not one bit ashamed as her breath finally returns, she hugging the yellow silk to her cheek, kissing it to her lips. As their eyes meet in true hearts' revelation, Nao uses the beloved scarf to dab the wetness from Yosuke's eyes, so wide with soulful introspection and fearful anxiety. Hand to his tear-stained cheek, she draws his trembling lips to hers, permitting her hidden heart to emerge at last.

"And I've always loved **you**, my Nao. _Je vous ai toujours aimée_. There will never be another woman for me than you. You must believe me, truly. For there is no other beach I wish to wash upon the shores thereof." Yosuke at last feels what it meant to be an honest man, not for the heroic rescue, but more for the wholeness of being true to himself that completed his life's vagaries of past false flirtations and manufactured compliments other females longed for him to say and he awarded them with amply.

But not Nao. Not his Nao. She wanted him to be real. Yosuke lavishly kisses her lips moistened from his own hot tears, until her strength and his weakness meld into one powerfully tender spirit of their unfolding love as Nao willingly wraps her arms around his neck. For on this special night, the student had taught the teacher the difference between weakness and kindness...and the correct answer was—

_Love..._

As the dark clouds above part, a shooting star races across the night sky and falls to the Earth. Nameless, yet singular, it rains down over their meaningful kiss, its now unlocked tears, tying their future together with the good fortune of a dazzling Piece of the Sky itself ...


	60. Chapter 60 - Thanks To You

**Chapter 60: **"**Thanks To You"**

Though highly unlikely at this romantic moment, had Fudou Yosuke or Kobayashi Nao been interested to look beyond one another's eyes to glimpse not so far below the Hohensberg Fortress Reck Tower scene, were the beautifully ornate Nonnberg Abbey's spires looming into the Salzburg skyline.

Though unconscious himself of the unfolding romance above, under the cover of darkness, Ousaki Shinobu felt part of another kind of romance, as if he were playing a part in the movie itself, when he pulls the minivan into the parking area in front of the Abbey.

With the Salzburg Cathedral's majesty already under their touring belts, quietly, reverently, fully awakened in his element, Shimizu Keiichi leads Fuyuumi Shoko and Shouji Megumi into the same gated entrance as the holy nuns stood at and held off the evil Nazis in the quintessential showcase of Austria's grandeur in the 'Sound of Music.' Ousaki had seen the acclaimed musical in his youth so many times, he was bemusedly worried for his vehicle's spark plugs and engine with an introspective chuckle as he realizes, after well inside the Abbey, that he had forgotten to lock the borrowed van's doors.

_Now that would make quite a story for you, Nami-san. You would enjoy writing that sort of intrigue up, I know it._

Ousaki's mind can't help but share the entertaining thought of the borrowed vehicle being mutilated by the inhabiting Sisters of the nunnery, just feet in front of a Holy shrine of devout worship, with the girl he's found so many thoughts to want to be part of.

_Nami-san, you have so much to offer this life, so much love for living it...Sometimes I envy the rest of the world for taking you away from me... _

He muses with a soft smile as he catches up with the younger threesome. Shimizu, in his sweet innocence, had convinced the respectably plump Austrian Reverend Mother that he, and his quiet group only wished to visit and pray at the Benedictine Saint John's Chapel to '_experience_' Nonnberg Abbey's exalted atmosphere and _'witness to pay homage'_ its sacred glory '_deep in their souls_'.

"That was quite a sell, Shimizu-kun. I don't know how you pulled it off. Good job." Leaning down to whisper in Shimizu's curly-headed ear, Ousaki Shinobu, over many years of his own artful practice, knew how to push the right buttons with people, in what words to say, but Shimizu Keiichi was a newbie at it. Or so he thought.

"Huh?" Comes Shimizu's lost, naïve reply. His sleepy eyelids droop for a moment as, despite his eagerness, the night wears on until the little touring group enters the upper catacomb where the Von Trapp family was cornered in the prolific film.

"The Nonnberg Abbey is the oldest female convent north of the Alps. Founded in 714 A.D by St. Rupert for his niece, it has been burnt down and destroyed several times in history. First by the Romans, then the Germanic tribes and many other conquerors. But each time, Austria rebuilds. It has stood like this since the 16th century for the Holy Benedictine Sisterhood. I believe that it is God who keeps rebuilding it, until He comes down to take us to our reward in the Hereafter." When he was in this mode, Shimizu Keiichi was really a walking encyclopedia, mixed equally with a Bible scholar.

"Oooh...!" Shouji Megumi was a Christian believer, but something about the way Shimizu spoke so slowly and informatively of the 'Afterlife' made her break out in goosebumps, as if he knew 'the end was nigh' or something thusly profound. It was too deep for her young, confused mind just yet, especially in its current adverse state of upheaval.

"Shimizu-kun! You're making Shouji-san nervous with all your history and prophecy in this darkened place. Why don't we go down to the Chapel now? We do have to hurry if we're to visit the Basilika tonight. It's across the town a ways. You'll be okay, Shouji-san, once we get out into the fresh air again." Ousaki puts a comforting warm arm around the shivering girl, whose breathing had grown rather  
erratic this moment.

"Oh." Shimizu Keiichi's slow step and sluggish mind were both incompatible with the word 'hurry,' especially when he was basking in the religiously historical ambiance of a Holy place.

He had already been rushed out of the Dom Cathedral and the St. Peter's Abbey. He frowns at the thought of leaving here as well so soon.

"D-d-don't be sad, Shimizu—uh, K-Keiichi..." Fuyuumi corrects herself before her slow beau has a chance to. Shimizu's frown slowly turns upside down as he looks at the pale aqua haired girl's blushing face full of compassion for his feelings.

"I can never...be sad for long...when I'm near to you, Fuyuumi-uh-Shoko." Was Shimizu's best attempt at a tease, with a wondrous look in his eye upon the shy girl. Fuyuumi giggles into her warm muff and both of them share a smile with one another.

"Come with me, Shoko. I know...a secret way." As if suddenly spurred on by the jewels of her eyes peeking out from the muff, Shimizu musters up enough energy and speed to grab hold of Fuyuumi's surprised hand and dash from the catacomb area through a maze of hidden corridors, and ending up directly in the St. John's Chapel near the front gate in record time.

There, speaking with the nun in charge, Ousaki and Shouji were just entering the Chapel as Shimizu deposits Fuyuumi inside, after genuflecting piously and making the sign of the cross properly as he goes in and out at an astonishing rate of speed, proving even he could be a normal boy, every now and then.

"What's going on with Shimizu-kun? We must be leaving soon." Ousaki whispers to Fuyuumi.

"Please, Ousaki-senpai! Be patient with him." She pleads for him with a soft smile. As she kneels to pray before a portrait of His Mother, Mary's calm beatified resolve, a thought dawns on her that she should show her own level of purpose for someone she believed in.

"M-m-may I play on your chapel organ, Holy Sister?" Although terrified inside, spurred on by inspiration, Fuyuumi asks for the sake of someone dear. She had unconsciously wandered over to the base of the stairwell leading to the choir apse above, where a small organ could be seen from the balcony railings.

"Oh yes, Mr. Ousaki has explained how you music students have just completed playing at the Vienna Opera House. It would very much please me—and the Lord no doubt—to hear your playing of His music on _His _organ." The elderly nun pats the young girl's reddened cheek reassuringly with a jesting smile. Fuyuumi was glad that the Reverend Mother and herself shared another common language besides their love of Christ, in good humored English.

_That's right, Shoko! If you can stand on a stage in __Vienna__, in front of thousands of strangers, you can play here, for just a few! Just for him..._

Determined to not lose her nerve, Fuyuumi Shoko quickly trots up to the organ loft above and her talented fingers instinctively begin playing the music of her heart. Her heart adoring his beautiful one combined together in song playing this piece—his composition. At first quiet, then confident, notes ring throughout the chapel below as with each passing chord, her courage grows.

"My Shoko knows me." Shimizu whispers to himself with a smile as he reenters the chapel, instantly recognizing his Shoko's soft tone color wafting down from an organ playing somewhere above, without need to look with his physical eyes .

He was carrying an old friend, who had been patiently waiting for him in the back seat of the van. Shimizu immediately goes to the front of the center altar step to set up his instrument, consciously aware that reverberation was designed to come from the front of the chapel where the preaching was to be heard in perfect blended conjunction with the music and singing from the choir apse above.

In place of her clarinet, Fuyuumi had already begun playing the piano accompaniment of Shimizu's composition. His trusty bow in hand, Shimizu adds to her lovely keyboarding his cello's soulful strains without missing a step. The entire chapel warms with beautiful music as the Reverend Mother is joined by two younger nuns, who devoutly light various candles about the room. They listen, pleased with the blessed beauty of Shimizu's most heartfelt composition new to their ears, but assuredly inspired to honor His.

Candlelight was glowing in the holy shrine where Priest Juset Mohr and Franz Gruber composed '_Silent Night_' on a Christmas Eve in 1792 when a malfunctioning church organ made religious musical history. With the aid of a choir guitar, perhaps the most famed Christmas carol—more of a spiritual hymn of the ages—was born.

A thousand facts and lofty thoughts float through Shimizu's mind as he and his cello deftly balance on the altar step, basking in the glow of the holy aura surrounding them both.

The Seiso pair were so in tune with the music, Fuyuumi's organ responding to Shimizu's cello as he invites her to travel with him into realms of pure inspiration his gifted soul was endowed to echo by Grace.

Glorious music fills the chapel as Keiichi and Shoko's harmonious notes transcend mere mortality and enter higher planes. The two play beautiful music physically on one level, their souls bonding on another level through it, where hearts reach out for one another their 'Heaven Sent Breeze'.

It soon merges into a 'Silent Night', at Shimizu's tender note's lead, in honor of its earthly birthplace. But by now, hearing Shimizu Keiichi play in such a hallowed place, Fuyuumi Shoko was absolutely sure that music _was_ born in Heaven...

And so was Shimizu, the contented smile on his face glowing in a way Fuyuumi had never quite seen before, as she glances over the top of the organ's music stand, down below the balcony to gaze upon the boy-Angel, Shimizu looking as if he expressly belonged amidst the inspirational scenery.

Silently observing the blonde angel's mood, Ousaki decides to let the Shimizu have a few moments alone in the holy chapel he so wanted to '_experience_'. The older man escorts Shouji Megumi and the pleasant nuns from the chapel, leaving only a dreamy Fuyuumi and inspired Shimizu for few private moments alone.

* * *

Fascinated by his sound, Fuyuumi never wanted him to stop playing, as if every moment of her life was meant to be filled with his music and her world would be lonely without it. She couldn't even imagine that sad thought without her throat catching.

Her life without Shimizu's music playing in her heart? Fuyuumi shakes her head with tears in her eyes, refusing to entertain such an empty desolate world. But it was that same anxious thought she fully couldn't banish away, nagging in the back of her mind again. Over the past two years, Shimizu's prowess as an amazing composer and genius musician had grown by leaps and bounds, along with his 5'7" height, but his willowy frame and pale face never held much of the healthy vigor or robust good health that other young men his age had, and that worried his little girlfriend no end.

_Please God, don't take this gift from me... _

Shimizu Keiichi, eyes closed in deep reflection as he absorbs the religious significance of the holy Chapel himself, feels his every sense begin to tingle as his cello's bow draws their "Silent Night" duet to a reverberating close. Quietly, he leans his beloved instrument against the side of the altar's bottom step where he had been perched.

His muse was calling to him, Shimizu's soul was keenly attuned to her need, for first love beat a new rhythm in the blond angel's heart that now longed to include the pale girl with big wistful eyes in the measure of its score.

In his slow methodical way, Shimizu takes a step closer to the staircase leading to the choir apse above. With each one, traveled the Blessed Assurance of the Infinite Love of the One who had granted him his Shoko to treasure her all the more.

Fuyuumi, upon Shimizu's cello gone silent, quickly begins to gather herself up. She suddenly remembers their itinerary to visit the Basilica Maria Plain and the no doubt already closing Mozart's Geburtshaus. That thought presses her to frantically dust and polish the keys of the spotless organ she had uncharacteristically asserted herself to play, and rearrange its bench and sheet music papers until she was dizzy with the fright she'd rudely left it in a different position than she'd found the holy instrument in.

_Oh dear, I'm taking too long! Is Keiichi waiting for me down there? _Fuyuumi anxiously thinks to herself as she bites her pink lips after fixing the organ bench to its 'correct' place for the tenth time (in the most reverent manner as possible). Unsure if she was to snuff out the candles the kind Reverend Mother had lit just for her to play by in the dark evening's choir apse, she peers over the balcony to see an empty chapel's vacant pews and unoccupied front alter step, where her cellist partner had been performing just minutes earlier.

"I'll always be waiting for you." A familiar voice answers her as if reaching into her very thoughts of the unspoken words written on her heart.

"Oh!" Fuyuumi whirls around with the surprised gasp. She was just about to hurriedly find her way down the dark staircase by herself when the small breathy voice enters the quiet of the stillness behind her, somehow filling the balcony with the magnitude of its deep sentiment.

"Right here, walking close beside every hope and dream in your heart. That's where I'll hear you calling to me." Shimizu Keiichi's sweet soft warmth had the wondrous effect of calming Fuyuumi Shoko's nervous heart along with her anxious soul that has been tormented of late by the melancholy thought of a lifetime of separation from her inspired angel when both knew his work here on earth was done...

The tears that had been brimming in her eyes for months now, begin to overflow, but are soon caught up in Shimizu's knowing smile of reassurance. His hand reaches out to take the candelabra Fuyuumi had been agonizing over still lit near the organ, the candlelight giving an ethereal glow to her Keiichi's already golden features in the girl's adoring eyes.

"Shoko, will you walk with me now?" Steadying herself in the clear blue eyes, Fuyuumi nods at Shimizu's pleasantly smiling plea once the small pair reaches the chapel's main floor. He leads her down the aisle to the side of the St. John Chapel front altar where the glorious display of Our Lord Jesus Christ's life's mission had been carved, painted and sculpted by artists whose hands were certainly directed by His to create such inspired mastery.

Awed by the sacred carvings upon this Gothic wooden altar, Fuyuumi Shoko tenderly hovers humble fingers over each of the holy depictions of a singular Life both human and Divine. Along His path was hope and tenderness, peace and forgiveness, suffering and triumph. And through it all, utmost unsurpassed Love.

Shimizu turns to place the candelabra on the vestibule, but when he returns, Shoko was no longer standing where he left her. The shivering girl was unconsciously moved by some unseen force that had taken her towards the glorified carvings, prayerfully mesmerized by each of the chapel's pride and joy. There was an emotion especially palpable when her dazzled eyes land upon the Madonna and Child's beautiful heart rendering scene of beautiful purity, quiet sacrifice and devoted love even amidst the knowledge of someday's separation.

For above all, there was unfailing, unselfish, utmost Love.

In Shimizu's sight, the pale aqua haired girl kneeling in submissive awe before the altar signified that same purity, selfless devotion and quiet beauty that made his own heart's music sing with untold glory that he only could achieve in his playing when she was near.

_I have finally found my true sound in you, my Shoko._

His well-trained ears knew her tone color's every note of crystal-clear melodious harmony as dear as if she were a part of him.

His well attuned eyes realize, upon gazing at Shoko's beautiful prayerful face intensified by a serene light, that he would never again forget how much she means to him.

His well-pleased heart beats in perfect time and rhythm in their life's song together that would play throughout his Eternity, for her music touched him in places that he never knew he never knew until this moment.

_My world is composed not only of music now, but of love too, thanks to you, my Shoko..._

Those big sleepy eyes open wide with the divine realization of complete awareness of their God-given bond. She was forever to be part of his truest composition, for the rest of his days here on Earth, and into Eternity beyond, Fuyuumi Shoko would always be his beloved Muse...

The girl in question did not know her admirer's exact thoughts, but somehow she felt they were directed at her, as the devout boy turns and bows reverently at the altar and quietly takes his place, kneeling at her side in prayer. After several silent minutes spent in supplication to quell her worries and fears, Fuyuumi timidly opens her shut eyes to be enveloped by the sea of aqua blue hues displaying his contentment, entranced when surveying her with quiet piety while she prayed at his side.

With a reflexive nervous giggle, timid Fuyuumi Shoko blushes as she swallows hard. Lost in his eyes, she can't help the tears from forming again in hers as she glimpses love's full beauty, so absolutely focused on her, without uttering a single unnecessary word.

Amidst the holy setting. Shimizu Keiichi fit right in, revealing the true angel in him as he stands, holding his hand out to her, reaching into her eyes all the while.

Enraptured, Fuyuumi gazes up, for in the candlelight of the altar's glow, she was certain there was an angelic halo around his golden head.

Her heart takes a mental photo of this irreplaceable moment with her beloved in whose smile she has found her home, her Angel reaching his hand out to her from Above, searing in her mind.

"Shoko?" Noticing her emotion, gently, Shimizu lifts her to her feet with the strength neither of them knew the slight, willowy boy possessed. Standing face to face with her, the curly-headed blonde places his hands around the girl's trembling shoulders, a soulful expression befalling his soft face, radiant with hope and gratitude.

"It's thanks to you, my Shoko. Thanks to you, I can reach my truest sound, because you call out for me to find it. Wherever the road takes us, I will still hear your music calling for me to answer. You and I in perfect melody and harmony, as He always intended us to be." Shimizu gently whispers, his skillful fingers wiping away Fuyuumi's overflowing tears as if each one was a precious jewel of happiness.

"I will always be close beside you, my Shoko, even as far as Heaven, I will still hear your music there. And I will still play it, as I played it just now the same, in your heart..."

As if he heard her every thought, there was something in his soft voice beneath his ethereally closed eyes, that transcended all her doubt and fear, washing them completely away. It was as if the part of the angel that was Shimizu Keiichi was floating on heavenly wings to a celestial place where beautiful music roamed freely through the limitless skies...

"Can you hear it too, Shoko? In the depths of my heart a new song has just been born. For you. A new song He has graced upon my world, when it truly belongs only in the next. It sounds so sweet and tender, it reminds me of you. I suppose the angels wanted to reach down and embrace you tonight with it."

An angel does indeed reach out to her, Fuyuumi nodding to his question, indeed hearing bells chime in her heart, with both tears and smiles of only joy now spilling from her eyes as Shimizu's gaze and arms both embrace her with his heavenly secured ones.

"Please always come to my dreams like this, Shoko. Come to my dreams and never leave them. Because no matter where His road takes you, my love will be at your side ...Always..." Squeezing her shoulders meaningfully, Shimizu whispers with an angelic contented smile upon her, Fuyuumi quite overcome with joyous laughter and smiles of being loved by the one she loves, her fears of yesterday and anxiety of tomorrow passing into the power of hope from the One Who held their small lives in the Palm of His hand.

For in both their souls, inspired notes now dance love's etude in each other's grateful eyes with the soulful sentiment that echoes through the holy Chapel, through the crisp cool Austrian sky and into the glory of Heaven itself, where the most beautiful sound ever heard first heralded from...the welcoming music of His pure unending Love...

_I give_ _my Thanks to You_...


	61. Chapter 61 - Endless Road

**Chapter 61: "Endless Road"**

Tsuchiura Ryotaro was on top of his game. He was exactly where he wanted to be in life. In his mind, in this moment, all was right with the world. It wasn't just the fact that he impressed the distinguished musical field of judges at the IBPC Auditorium so much that they welcomed his piano playing with open arms. It wasn't only that he was, step by slow step, instrument by learned instrument, getting this much closer to his goal—of someday becoming a great world-renowned conductor.

Now that he'd been accepted into the auspicious competition, now that he performed on the prestigious Vienna Opera House stage and was applauded by the most eminent members of music society, now that Tsuchiura had tasted the future that old Europe's legendary cultural center offered his ambitious youth's dreams and hopes—he was just as glad he had someone willing to walk the same path alongside him, every step of the way.

_But is it right for me to ask this of Mizue? Just up and leave her home and family to follow me to __Europe__ for who knows how long?_

His macho ego had forgotten that it was Sakimoto Mizue's own independently offered idea. Tsuchiura's normally ultra masculine, unaffected attitude left not much room for quiet reflection, nor the questioning doubts that nonetheless made there way, this time, into his excited head.

But every now and then, as he and Mizue idly strolled through Altstadt's Getreidgasse market center, Tsuchiura would steal a glance at the dreamy girl whose gaze was often longingly affixed on the mountain view of the Untersberg Alpine peaks to the north of where the pair walked the streets in the chilly night air.

"Mizue, you keep staring at that thing. It's not like the mountain's gonna move or light up or anything." The callous male teases, he always getting a kick out of how the tawny brown haired girl's eyes glazed over wistfully whenever she was in deep thought on a particular romantic subject.

"You don't have a shred of poetry in your soul, Tsuchiura Ryotaro!" Mizue rolls up the scenic map of Salzburg she had picked up in the marketplace and gives the naughty mouthed boy a resounding smack on the arm as punishment

"Ouch! You and that poetry stuff again! Hehehe..." The prosaic young man laughs off her attack, putting his hands up to shield from many further swipes of the attacking map but to no avail. Mizue goes to whack him again for laughing at her passion for the fanciful verses of the art form, when he backs up with a bang against the street lamp.

"Damn!" Tsuchiura grumbles at his own clumsy stupidity in trying to avoid her swipe, his shoulder wound still fresh enough to smart when banged.

"My poor baby!" Mizue drops her marauding map to the ground and rushes over to her 'baby,' gingerly caressing his injury with the nurse's soft touch and a lover's cooing words.

"I'm fine, Mizue... really." The big brute glances around, rather embarrassed to be so coddled in public, but luckily no one was looking. Or listening.

Although he was red as a beet from hearing her familiar, overly affectionate address as she rushed to him, Tsuchiura was rather surprised to find himself strangely pleased by her caring tenderness.

_Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age. As if! Ha ha ha ha. _

"Whoa, down, girl!" He chuckles to himself at her bold aggression as Mizue ignores his assurances and checks out the gashed cut she caused him to have. She peels down his coat and shirt back, pushing him into a nearby phone booth to lean against his bare skin side rather cozily as she readjusts the bandages. Tsuchiura hides his even more reddened shame of her intimate proximity by reading the color advertisements on the shelter's interior that was thankfully in plain English.

"Look! It says here you can catch a trolley every 10 minutes that goes up to that Untersberg Alpine peak you're so enthralled with." With a sarcastic twist to his lip, Tsuchiura bites back a pained gasp when Mizue removes the old bandage with a new gauze pad, for with all the night's excitement, her patient had missed his scheduled medical  
attention earlier.

"That's nice, just hold still—Ryo!" Her replacement of the wound's dressing just completed, Mizue was putting away her handy survival medical kit as she distractedly answers politely the noncommittal response, when her injured "baby" suddenly grabs her wrist and yanks her from the phone shelter with not so much as a how-do-you-do.

"Hey!" She lets out a yelp, but Tsuchiura only pauses to scoop up the map of Salzburg she'd used as a weapon on him before, as his long striding legs hurry them down the street and turn a sharp corner abruptly. Next thing Sakimoto Mizue knew, she was being hopped upon some sort of trolley bus and Ryo was speaking in a low tone to the conductor/driver.

"Ryo!?" Mizue demands more than that, as she was not the type of girl who was flattered by an overly bossy man.

_Who's in charge here anyway?!** I'm** your nurse!_

"Where are we going?" She asks, glancing around, puzzled, as the tall sporty man plunks on the bench beside her, pressing her closer to the  
window seat on the trolley bus.

"It'll only be 20 minutes there, and 20 minutes back, so we won't get back to the Villa too too late." Tsuchiura was absorbed in calculations as he answers not her question.

"Twenty minutes? Ryo! Where are we going?!" Mizue raises an eyebrow as the trolley quickly picks up speed and pulls out of the busy city area. Tsuchiura looks at her with a smug smile painted on his face, simply opening the map and pointing at a certain spot on it in the slowly flickering street lights.

"The mountain peak—Untersberg?" In hushed awe, Mizue reads the symbol point on the map of the Alpine Peak straddling the German/Austrian border just a few kilometers to the north of Salzburg.

"Ryo, are really taking me to '_Where the rolling plains climb, to lofty mountain peaks sublime_'...?"

"Why not?" Nodding with a smug quirky smile, Tsuchiura didn't know if Mizue was quoting some stuffy old poet of hers, or merely inventing some imagery of her own. Either way he didn't care. All he wanted was to have her beside him, just as she is—strong in both will and spirit, beautiful in both body and mind, clearly displayed in the warmth of her pink cheeks glowing with an enchanted light up at him.

_Because that would be too romantic, coming from you..._ She doesn't say, but surprises herself in thinking it amidst sonnets of poetry..

_'Gazing on the new soft-fallen mask, Of snow upon the mountains and the moors...'_

As the rolling plains of the South indeed melt into the mountains north of Salzburg, Tsuchiura's poor brain is addled by Mizue's incessant spouting of poetry along what seemed a scenery filled night road. Every new sight seems to inspire her to a different lyric or verse, since Mizue was well-read of far too many European poets not to revel in their source of genius, as the vehicle climbs the steepening hills until it reaches the aforementioned Untersberg peak.

_'__'Let the cloud ebb audibly along the mountain-wind.'__  
__'Of snow upon the _mountains_ and the moors,' __that__  
__'Flatter the mountaintops with sovereign eye...'_

From Keats to Browning to Shakespeare, twenty minutes into Sakimoto Mizue's pure chattering joy, just as scheduled, the trolley comes to a stop at the Salzkammaget ski resort in the Lake District near Salzburg. They were the only two passengers so late at night to take in the view of Germany's border to one side and the clear panorama of Salzburg on the other from the lofty perspective of the whimsical ski lift car they boarded. High above all the frosted trees and old world chalets and villas the car hovers over, its passengers could still see Altstadt's baroque towers, churches and massive Festeg HohenSalzburg Fortress that dominate the scene below beside the Salzach River's dark gleaming waters which reflected the fortress lighting, illuminating the awe inspiring landscape vista amidst a sea of stars dotted in the dark sky for a pair of breath-taken eyes.

In the flash of dazzled excitement, Mizue had spontaneously spun down the window of the slow-moving lift car to take in the romantic view properly, with all her five senses, plus the soul's extrasensory spiritual one, despite the chilled rush of Alpine air blowing in.

Tsuchiura rolls his eyes as he removes his jacket to place around he wraps a strong arm around her shoulders as he moves from the opposite seat nearer to her, pulling her to his chest for warmth.

Or was it for more than just warmth? Gazing down at Mizue's bedazzled eyes greedily drinking in the landscape above and below, Tsuchiura Ryotaro realizes that there's no one else he'd rather take on his life's journey then this girl with the poetry gleaming in her eyes.

_It does suit you..._

"Oh, Ryo! Just look out there! '_High above the dark night's snowy peaks, the starry sky itself seems to speak. Uncountable centuries old gone by, each night they come alive anew revived—_"

"Shut up a minute, Mizue." Tsuchiura gruffly cuts off her poetic platitudes. Mizue, shocked, spins around from the window view over his shoulder, until something in Ryo's eyes warmed her chilled bones to the fingertips as he squeezes them tightly, enveloping every digit that disappears beneath his large manly ones.

"Look, I don't claim to have all those highfaluting words and rhymes you like so much. I've spoken plainly all my life and I guess I always will. So—" Tsuchiura pauses, looking seriously into the girl's astonished yet dreamily hopeful face up at him.

"I don't want you to come with me next summer."

He purposely removes his arm from around her, sitting back far to his side of the ski-lift, hands over head, doing his best to seem nonchalant.

Like a bucket of cold water on her rising spirits, Mizue's expectant eyes were crestfallen at his last rush of harshly spoken words. She spins around on the ski car's bench fully now to look at him, confusion in her eyes.

"Wha-what?" She stutters, all the gorgeous alpine sights and dreams of romance dashed away like shards of fragmented ice. A frown creases her face as she attempts incredulously to divine the meaning of his jut-out set jaw.

"I think you should stay in Japan." Tsuchiura says decidedly with a stiff chin and averted eyes.

A moment of stark silence passes in the cool mountain air, Mizue sure she could feel the breath of the cold winds tear through her very heart in that moment.

"But... why?" She whispers in a small voice almost broken with tears, she gazing at her trembling hands helplessly.

Whenever she looked like that at him, Tsuchiura can't help but feel the urge to wrap her in his strong arms until everything was better as he squeezes her shaky palms in his, his resolve almost folding.

"It's the right thing to do." But after searching her wide eyes, a detached Ryotaro instead answers in his steeliest voice, eyes resigned as he lets go of her clenched fists as if in need of convincing himself both physically and mentally to let go.

"Don't you want me? I thought you liked me now..." She whispers in an even smaller voice, anxiously biting her lip at this second rejection, her blue-green eyes pleading his for an answer she could cling to. Her soul filled with lines upon paragraphs of reams of poetry begins to shake with reality's cruel harshness to its very core.

That quivering spreads to the rest of her, as she clasps her hands together on her lap to steady them.

"Of course I do! Mizue, I'd be a fool not to want you at my side. I want you with me." Wringing his big hands, Tsuchiura feels quite a cad upon seeing the pain clearly etched in her eyes again.

But he never did say the right words, as she claimed many times before. He swivels around to look at her again, and in an explosion of pent-up emotion, he grabs hold of her two clenched fists in his big monstrous palms again, this time almost too tightly.

"Listen, Mizue! Without you, and your dumb poems and endless prattle and silly rhymes, my life would be too darn empty to keep working hard, day after day, like this!" He finishes his impassioned words with a crooked smile. In his inimitable way, half apologizing, half teasing, Tsuchiura brushes her errant bangs back with a caress.

"But I don't want you to give up your path just so I can chase mine. To bring you somewhere, halfway across the world, away from your home—this crazy dream might take years—if ever—you know, before I become anything more than some nobody piano player. I can't promise you anything more than that." Tsuchiura vents, eyes cast downward out the dark window to the cold stillness below with his own inner demons.

"Oh, Ryo! Don't you see?" Mizue smiles in sudden relieved grateful understanding of the male psyche's easily read intricacies, despite the tears gathered in her eyes.

"Stop telling me what you think I should do and ask me what I think I should do for once! I want to walk the same path as you! To the end of the world I would go for you and I don't care how long it takes! I'll always be proud to stand beside you because...you've always been that most precious and important someone to me..." She blushes, but continues to boldly profess her years of love for him.

"I know for sure you'll get there some day! And I'll be there to help you every step of the way! And don't try to tell me otherwise!" Mizue lets out a small chuckle, her hand reaching out to pull his chin to look her directly in the eye.

"Somewhere in this world, is exactly where I belong—if it's with **you**. Because it's your beautiful limitless dream I adore. I always have and always will, Ryo—now all the more." Now is Mizue's turn to bolster him in rhyme, as she throws herself bodily into his arms, winking an encouraging smile at him, determined to stand by her man no matter where or why or how long it takes him to reach that dream on his talented piano keys.

'_Happiness to me is wine, Effervescent, superfine.'_

At long last Sakimoto Mizue has found her happiness, as long as she was with him—and he wanted to be with her just as much.

Satisfied by her proclamations of confidence and faith and hope for his future, Tsuchiura leans his chin against her brown bangs in relief as the pair find new beauty in the romantic atmosphere of one another's confessed emotion in this magnificent place atop the scenic Alpine Untersberg peak, overlooking the poetry and prose intersecting towards tomorrow as the stars light their way, side-by-side in perfect tandem, on Ryo and Mizue's Endless Road...


	62. Chapter 62 - Going My Way

**Chapter 62: **"**Going My Way?"**

Amou Nami had been a busy little camera bug this night.

_CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK._

She had snapped so many photos of the bustling scenic Altstadt marketplace (top-secret Kaji x Manami shots), the Mozart famed Geburtshaus (candid-camera Hihara x Miyabi pics, plus a few extra stop-the-presses Yunoki x Ayano stills), then some pretty paths leading to Salzburg trolley lines (furtive flash Tsuchiura x Mizue captures), not to mention the Musikhaus Puhringer Music shop on the Getreidgasse (fun focus Shoma x Mio poses) and even a swing by the Museum der Moderne (film noir Yosuke x Nao photo exclusives), before topping it off at the Salzburg Dom Cathedral (Shimizu x Fuyuumi photo finish)!

_Whew!_ _No diet necessary for a reporter who does her own legwork! _An exhausted Amou Nami brightly smiles, relishing each flash of her camera and the juicy story that went with every one of them. Her quick shorthand notepad was soon full, so her photographic memory was to be put to the test tonight for the rest.

Amou lets out a long sigh as she plops on a bench nearby the street, furiously typing on her laptop the tidbits of stories from her vast memory banks before either her tousled brain or impetuous feet slip away on the ice again, as she was walking and texting simultaneously, without a thought to look where she was going.

With no one to catch her fall.

_Again. Sigh _

Amou was saddened by the thought that this would be her and Ousaki Shinobu's last night together - and they were spending it apart.

_And whose fault is that, Amou Nami?_

Amidst her tough hard and reporter busyness, Amou's heart was still feminine enough to wander to thoughts of her own docile love story every now and then whilst documenting that of her friends more exciting affairs. And as their romances seem to flare into full fruition, Amou can't help but wonder if nice, kind, sweet Ousaki Shinobu, had enough flicker in his gentle soul to light a small matchlight of romance, never mind the full raging flame of passion she'd read about in the headlines.

_Not even one kiss! Heck, he hasn't even said he loves me... yet..._

Amou had more than enough confidence in herself and ambition for the both of them as she secretly smiles, determined to bag one world famous, handsomely cute catch of a violinist with peepers one of these days.

Lost in her thunder fingers typing and her own love longing thoughts, Amou didn't see Tsuzuki Mari emerge from a quiet Salzburg antique shop across the road with a carefully wrapped brown paper package tied and tucked under her elegant arm.

"Good evening, Amou-san. Is anything amiss?" After a few minutes of silent reflection, the dark-haired lady inquires of the golden young woman's face full of contortions. Amou looks up with a start.

"Oh, no, no. Just...gathering my thoughts for my next plan of attack." Amou answers with a resigned air and a soft sigh that Mari considers quizzically. But she was not adept enough at social skills to discern more into her companion's current psyche, rather searching for the most congenial thing to say, though often a loss. So Mari simply pulls up her fur-lined collar of her coat to ward against the chill.

"That's always a good idea, I find myself." The elder college graduate agreeably nods, finally responding.

Sensing the woman's discomfort and being a people person herself, Amou puts aside her own disheveled feelings and looks up with a smile.

"Have a seat." Amou anecdotally pats the seat next to her on the bench, half expecting the prim reserved lady to refuse or make some excuse and leave.

But much to Amou's surprise, Mari does neither. She sits, as invited.

"Thank you." Mari politely answers with a soft smile, delicately alighting and crossing her curvaceous legs as she arranges her long skirts and warm jacket around herself.

Amou gives her new companion a sidelong glance and a conciliatory pleasant nod as she continues to type her text at record pace, though one eye couldn't help but catch glimpse at the interesting parcel placed on Tsuzuki's sophisticated lap.

"What have you got there?" The investigative reporter in Amou Nami couldn't stop herself from asking the question as she eyes the mysterious package, glancing up from her laptop pad for a moment of curiosity.

"A surprise I discovered for someone very special to me." Mari enigmatically chuckles to herself as she says this, almost giddy with either the item in question or the thought of its presentation.

"Oh." Amou says, frowning to be mystified by the joviality in which classy Tsuzuki-san was compelled into laughter she herself was not privy to. Ever since the woman had come to be a sort of part-time teacher at Seiso three years ago to conduct and train Hino Kahoko to be Conmis at Director Kira's request, the tightlipped college student with the standoffish nature was never vivacious, ourspoken and friendly Amou Nami's cup of tea. The two disparate women's personalities were at polar opposites of the spectrum as they could be. They never did hit it off, starting from when the hoity-toity orchestral graduate first refused to grant school reporter an in-depth interview on her conducting of the Seiso orchestra, and continuing in the curt way Tsuzuki-san treated our beloved Hino Kahoko during her tough going Conmis escapade.

And on top of that, over the years, insightful Amou had a sneaking suspicion that the cool college graduate had a thing for Amou's own favorite OB, who turned out to be, albeit unwittingly, Mari's greatest rival, stemming from their formative school years at Seiso in past concours together when, perhaps, she wanted him to be something more. Amou's feminine intuition, coupled with the investigative journalist in her, could sense tension rising in Tsuzuki-san whenever anyone even mentioned Ousaki Shinobu's name. And that rubbed her the wrong way, too.

So, Amou -_not one bit jealous, mind you!_ _Okay, maybe half a teeny-weeny bit!_- was a tad reluctant to delve any further about just who the recipient of the aforementioned 'surprise for someone very special' present on Mari's lap was to be. Ousaki's sweet compassionate nature in accepting such a thing would only be an encouragement to the poor woman's one-sided love. But Amou knew Ousaki Shinobu's affable character well enough by now to ascertain that fact was certainly sure if it came to pass as so.

As she gives the secretly bubbling over inside woman seated beside her a part jealous/part sad look over, thinking of a certain young man who would be so close for only a short time more and yet again so far way, Amou's industrious little mind in overdrive needn't have worried.

For the next scene playing out before her eyes took half her hidden heartache away completely.

Amou Nami watches with budding interest how Tsuzuki-san's dulled calm eyes light up enthusiastically as a certain dark figure in the driver's seat of the Archduke's stylish Rolls-Royce quickly turns the corner to their street. There was something unexplainable in the way her free hand flew to her chest as if to still its heartbeats as she instantly rises to her high-heeled feet in almost girlish expectation.

Had her cell phone, which Amou involuntarily, out of habit in un-incognito reporting slow moments, only just switched back on into receiving mode, not just begun to ring tone chime the "Air on a G-string" ditty, she surely would have been grilling the blushing lady for some juicy gossip about her relationship with a certain dark and dashing Director.

"Hello?" Amou answers, though distracted by one eye on the red-faced and somewhat disappointed and deflated Tsuzuki Mari, the other eye following the Rolls swiftly traversing the busy street before them, obviously not intending to stop to chat.

"Nami-san? I've been trying to reach you all evening! Where are you?" Ousaki Shinobu's mellow voice was full of pining longing for her, so apparent that Amou wanted to give a shout of joy.

_He does care!_

"About 10 minutes away from wherever you're at, Cuddlebunches!" She cries into her cell phone exuberantly, jumping to her feet by now.

"We're just arriving at the Basilica. But I don't know how long we'll be here. It is getting late for the students. Nami-san, are you still there?" Without so much as a second thought, only half hearing his words, Amou Nami's quick thinking body reacts. She races into action as only a girl in love could, makimg a youthful sprinting beeline towards the Rolls-Royce, thankfully slowed by the traffic before, now beginning to accelerate towards the end of the lane...

**"DIRECTOR KIRA! STOP! I NEED A LIFT!"** Amou cries out in her loudest voice (and that was loud indeed) in the public street as she dashes towards the departing automobile, waving her arms and hands about like a crazed banshee on the warpath.

By some miracle, though his ears were attuned to more music than one mad roving reporter's boisterous lungs had to offer the airwaves, Kira Akihiko brings the car to a screeching halt, the man certain he had run over some poor creature for all the noise and screaming coming from behind the car.

"For heaven's sake! What is all that cacophony, woman?! Out in the open street? Have you gone mad?!" Mortified beyond words in this foreign city by one of his most disliked former students, Kira growls disdainfully after leaping from the driver's door like an action hero in a movie only to see Amou's wild hands flagging him down as she continues to barrel towards him, quite out of breath and panting from her frantic run.

"I _huff _need _puff _a ride_ huff-puff-_" Amou tries to gather her breath back long enough to explain to the man glowering before her, but it was failing her. As she bends forward to her knees trying to catch it back, Kira stares down her lowclass behavior incredulously.

"-to the Basilica." Surprising the reporter girl and the dark man even more so, another breathless woman's voice finishes from behind Amou. Prim, pristine, proper, Tsuzuki Mari somehow kept up with the Supergirl ace reporter, perhaps fueled by her own heart's longing to be with the man she loved as well.

"Please?" But Mari catches more than her breath in Kira's eyes, as they soften at her request. He reaches right past a shocked Amou and wraps a comforting arm around Mari's willowy heaving shoulders, rubbing them tenderly with caressing strong hands.

"Of course, Mari. I just happen to be going that way myself." Kira says in kind tones to Mari, with a strangely knowing look that grows concerned upon glancing at her weakened form. Forgetting all about the annoying reporter, he leads the shivering, heavy chested woman to the front seat dotingly.

"Thank you... Akihiko-san." Mari's girlish blush told Amou's observant eyes that the lady's crush on Ousaki was well over to make way for something new with Director Kira instead. Amou stops still in her tracks to soak it in, her exhausted mouth gaping wide open with this new revelation as the older couple get in the front seat of the car, eyes only for each other, as they seem toignore her completely.

_'Mari?' 'Akihiko'?_

_Whoa! Newsflash! When did __**that **_happen?!

Amou cracks a surprised wide smile, chuckling over her own inattention to this most unlikely of situations as she gets into the car's backseat. As she giggles at the sophisticated couple -yes couple!- she surreptitiously takes a quick photo snap of the rumored story of the school year already taking shape in her excited head that was spinning until that calm soothing voice brings her back down to earth again.

"Nami-san? " Ousaki overheard enough to know that his girl was at least safe, though terrified he was for a few moments of her radio silence amidst street noise and klaxons blaring and people shouting as she raced headlong through busy traffic.

"Strap your seatbelts on, ladies, something has come up that I must attend to quickly." Kira, back behind the driver's wheel, floors it, the Rolls-Royce speeding down the highway at record speeds.

"Looks like I'll be there with you in a wink... Shinobunny." Amou whispers familiarly, ignoring the captain's orders, and controlessly collapsing in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce in consequence as the car takes off, tossing the errant seatbelt-less hitchhiker to and fro whilst zipping down the Austrian avenues in the cool night with the surreptitious mission known only to its silent driver.


	63. Chapter 63 - Real

**Chapter 63: **"**Real"**

The BasilicaMariaPlain located on Calvary Hill was a late Baroque church on the northern edge of Salzburg. It was well known for its stunning architecture and beautiful grounds on which many holy shrines and graves were erected in honor of the beatified saints who served the Lord all their days at this renowned European church.

"Amou-kun." In his hard voice again, for he seemed to only reserve his soft tones for Tsuzuki Mari, the dark Director suddenly speaks to the backseat passenger as the car comes to a stop before a path leading up to the church up on the hill.

As he turns around to the guilty lass, Amou protectively clutches and hides her 'Aibou,' her trusty camera/best buddy to her chest for fear of the powerful man's confiscation of it and its personally darning film contents, for Amou had snuck a few snapshots of Kira and Mari's heads bent close to each other exchanging quiet words as both surveyed the Roll's GPS map instructions to locate the Basilica.

"Inform Ousaki-kun that I wish to speak with him, directly." Director Kira instead states succinctly rather than giving Amou a reprimand for invasion of privacy.

"Yes, Sir!" Amou mockingly salutes her former 'superior' rhetorically as she scrambles from the vehicle and trots up the steep stairway leading up to the church.

"Oh! And thanks for the ride, **_Akihiko-san_**!" She calls back his forename mischievously, unable to cover her mirthful glee, breaking the holy silence with an insinuating teasing wave as she dashes away, giggling all the while.

"Eh—Yes... so…" Kira dismisses the annoying reporter in training with a clearing throat.

"Mari, I hope you can forgive my inattention tonight after the performance, but-" Kira's voice softens once again as he turns to the dark woman seated beside him with the apology.

"I understand completely." Mari cuts off his explanations with her melodious tones and even more harmonious eyes interlocking with his deep red ones.

"You always do." Kira smirks to himself contentedly, bowing his eyes to the lady's infinite patience, as he leans an elbow against the driver's wheel and gives her his full warm attention.

"Besides, it gave me a chance to have this finished." She says proudly, handing over to him the parcel she had been carefully preserving the entire ride.

"A gift?" Kira raises an eyebrow as he quizzically shifts the brown paper package over in his large hands.

"But...open it later, please. Someone else will want to see it too." She whispers enigmatically with a repressed smile.

"As you wish." Kira cocks his head hesitantly as he places the package in the glove box leaving the two to gaze up to the church on the hill with the silhouette of the November moon behind it, setting the landscape aglow.

* * *

Against that same illuminated backdrop, Amou Nami could not keep herself from pausing to shoot a few night stills of the glorious edifice designated the 'BasilicaMariaPlain'. Walking into the Basilica's massive front doors, she is awed by the vaulted ceilings that takes one's breath away as she gazes into the impressive nave entrance, her busy photographer mind seeing an instant picture perfect possibility there.

She spots the Seiso graduating class of three on the balcony, as the familiar faces inspect the recessed choir apse in the upper church rear with a pious looking man donning glasses as their guide. But it wasn't _her_ man of piety with peepers.

"Where are you, Shinobunny?" Her ultra loud voice from before is reduced to a quiet hush, for even the brash journalist had enough respect to realize how fortunate it was for her and the other Seiso graduates to be permitted to visit this church and be given a tour by one of its blessed deacons at this late hour.

_And I could just imagine who arranged all that._

Ousaki Shinobu had a way with words as well as with people. He had called ahead for the 'holy pilgrimage' that historical and religious enthusiast Shimizu Keiichi, amongst others, might enjoy on their last night abroad. The kind man's endless consideration brought a proud smile to Amou's face.

_Our last night...together..._

The sad thought begins to sink into Amou's mind, along with her smile, as bedazzled eyes gaze in the subdued lighting at the glorious religious scenes and statues adorning the Basilica's hallowed walls.

_'...Fa do...so mi, fa do, la ti do!...'_

The heart rendering plaintive tune that was the signature Ousaki Shinobu piece seems to reiterate her sentiment. The music beckons to Amou from somewhere outside the Church.

Stepping through the side open doors as if magnetically drawn to the music, Amou feels a powerful warmth welcome her despite the chilly night air. The scene of the singular figure stroking his violin as if it were a live being, a child perhaps, that was tenderly held and played with and cherished, but most of all...loved...

That sentiment drew her all the nearer... For whenever he was near, a fire started to whisper alive in the corners of her heart...

Upon the holy statued and sacred cross dotted hillside, he stood. Amou's breath was completely stolen away now with no other thought in her dizzy head besides her Ousaki Shinobu's ability to cast warmth and light wherever he was. An honest light to believe in, an unforgettable warmth for her to run to wherever his dreams traveled, for that was where her heart longed to truly follow.

When his "_En Bateau_" comes to its haunting crescendo, Amou's normally unimpressed jaded eyes were filled with tears. It was as if the sweet man was serenading each passed-on Saint, softly asking for their blessing upon his future path into a vast world yet unknown to him, when he himself was content to stay a happy nobody at home.

A twig cracks beneath her feet and Ousaki is immediately called from his thoughtful reverie to look up at her.

"Nami-san! You're here! While I was waiting for you, something called me to play out here." Looking like a pure saint himself without his ever present glasses on, though wondrous smile still in place, Ousaki lowers his violin's bow as she approaches him. Amou carefully makes her bowed head way through the consecrated grounds on Calvary Hill.

"That was especially beautiful tonight, Shinobu." She whispers, entranced in eyes that she rarely saw without their trademark spectacles in place, then shakes herself awake to deliver the message.

"Oh—I mean—Director Kira wants to talk to you right away. He's in the car at the foot of the hill." She says, catching herself in embarrassment, though yet unable to break away from his gaze.

"All right. I'll go." Ousaki seemed strangely hesitant to be called away now that he got her here at last. He replaces his glasses with a glance over his shoulder at the waiting vehicle at the base of the hill.

"But—stay here... please... I have something really important to say to you. So please, wait right here, Nami-san." Ousaki, in a harried rush, pushes his glasses back to the bridge of his nose as he hands her his violin and then the bow in a somewhat discombobulated way. He uncharacteristically places both hands on her surprised shoulders and plants her firmly down on a stone bench as if she was a will o' the wisp that might just flutter away by the time he got back.

He trots down the steps at record pace, two or even three at a time. Amou giggles at the funny way he was acting as she shakes her head, whipping out her trusty camera to take a few comical stills of his rapid descent, followed by a quick conversation with the inhabitant of the vehicle and swift leaps and bounds back up the steps to her.

"What did the Director want?" Amou asks, inquisitive as ever, she pausing her picture taking of the scenery from the bench to watch him put his violin back in its case, kneeling on the ground near the stone carving of St. Rupert, the eighth century bishop who helped build the BasilicaMariaPlain on Calvary Hill around the year 700.

"Just to say that we should wait for Etou-kun, who's planning to pick up Shouji-san from us to bring her someplace special." Ousaki says with a distracted smile.

"Amen to that! It had better be darn special—pardon me, ladies and gentlemen—" Amou glances about sheepishly apologetic to the sainted gravestone monuments close by "—but that boy's got to come down a peg and learn a thing or two about how a girl's heart works." She makes a sourpuss at their 'star violinist's' ill treatment of abandoning poor quiet Shouji Megumi tonight of all nights, for who knows what dramatic fit, without so much as a by-her-leave.

"Love has a way of erasing all sadness by and by, if we learn to cherish it as we should—when we should..." Ousaki introspectively murmurs softly beneath his breath more to himself than to Amou. Noting his mood, she halts her shutter flash camera survey of the photogenic night scene of the Basilica's sacred hill, it being quite a fitting compliment to the end of her photo diary. She stands in the moonlight and stares at him.

"Shinobunny?" Amou asks with big eyes, sensing something important was left unsaid, as she tilts her head at his mysterious words when he doesn't respond right off, his back towards her.

Ousaki doesn't turn around immediately though, as if too shy to conjure up what he wanted to say.

The right words.

Formulating them carefully with much thought, he begins slowly, purposefully, as he kneels before the carving at St. Rupert's feet.

"Have you ever looked in a mirror, Nami-san?" He asks, his eyes still affixed down to the ground.

"A mirror? Of course I have, silly man." Amou answers, chuckling at the simple riddle as she kneels behind him, boldly wrapping her arms 'round his neck as Ousaki's fingers continue to draw symbols in the cool dusty ground before him, then suddenly pauses.

"I look into a pair of beautiful looking glasses where magic happens— every time I gaze into your eyes, Amou Nami." Removing his glasses again, Ousaki Shinobu quickly turns, his face close to hers, to meet Amou's wide sparkling eyes with his thought-provoking deep ones.

"Just as you see clearly through your camera lens dazzling things, it's as if my heart becomes clearer when it's reflected in yours. I didn't quite know how to say this properly but, I know you'll understand because..." He pauses modestly looking to the moon above for enlightenment.

"I've never met anyone who knows me as well as you do. You do and say the same things I would, without me ever saying a word, before I even think of them sometimes. I like that in you, Nami-san. I like that a lot." Ousaki takes her hands resting on his chest and holds them in both of his warmly.

"Like the left without its right, the sky without its sun, I don't know where I'd be without you to hold onto back home all these years."

"You are my eyes, my ears, my every sense. I would be lost without my kindred spirit." His soothing voice builds in fervor all at once, squeezing her fingers to press over his heart.

"A kindred spirit, eh? How can a girl pass that up?" Amou laughs through her own pain at the sweet literary term of the past, recognizing that this was Ousaki Shinobu's deep way of expressing his feelings of love, the pair bonded so completely by now, she knew.

"I feel the same way, Shinobunny. I've always loved you and always will." Amou hugs his neck even tighter, not one bit afraid to confess her own long term feelings for her beloved, the flame inside her chest glowing brighter.

"So..." Ousaki smiles, gratified for the reassurance as he launches into the purpose of his speech.

"Wherever those correspondence courses you've written me about take you, I want to be there for you, too. With a little well rewarded effort, I know I can do it. Please let me be the one to arrange my concert tours around you, Nami-san." Amou's eyes open wide in  
disbelief as he speaks, but the smile on his face was gently calming.

"All the while I've been traveling, I've felt so lonely, incomplete, like I left a piece of me behind, with only memories packed in my suitcase. For these past two years, my heart has ached far too much because I discovered more and more, **you** were that part of me I was missing. I know our future's path was meant to be walked side by side, not alone, one by one. After all, kindred spirits were never meant to be apart for very long, you know." He smiles that genuine smile, pulling her onto his lap gently, this the closest thing to physical expression of their growing love to date.

"Is this for real?" Amou whispers into Ousaki's reddish hair, pressing her cheek against the warmth of his neck in disbelief of what he was telling her. But never once has Ousaki Shinobu ever told her lie, so she clings to the promise nonetheless.

"I was already plotting excuses to give my editor on covering your concert dates! I always dreamed that I'd be the one chasing you and your illustrious fame around the world. Not the other way around! We really must be those kindred spirits of yours. I guess that goes to show that even the best laid plans..." An excited Amou scoffs at her now unnecessary scheming plans as she was still swallowing what Ousaki Shinobu was offering her—freely giving her his everything.

"You're a very special individual, Amou Nami, whose busy hands can take hold of the world. My entire world, my entire heart..." Ousaki kisses each her hands to his warm lips, placing them over his heart meaningfully.

"I think I'll be investigating **this** breaking story for very, very long time to come." Amou looks seriously into his eyes, pressing her palm to his chest lovingly.

"After I inspect your luggage, that is." She then teases with a wink, their chuckles warming the crisp night air. Amidst their giggles, Amou's eyes alight upon what Ousaki had been inscribing in the dust whilst confessing his need to have her near him: 心 the Japanese kanji "Kokoro", which, in the flowing language, translated to 'heart/soul/mind/spirit'.

"Mine belongs to yours, Nami." He notices her attention on the written text of significance with a proud smile, playing with the bobs of her golden curls as he meets her eyes.

In those pair of mirrors Ousaki could clearly see her zest for life, for her passions, for her dreams that would make their future together traveling the world so very exciting and fulfilled, as Amou Nami takes hold of everything in life fervently.

Just as right now, she takes hold of him, unable to contain the smoldering fire in her heart blazing to life in a raging flame anymore.

Quickly, Nami angles her lithe body to kneel upon Ousaki's surprised lap, steadying her balance with his shoulder and landing a wild kiss—their very first at last!—on his astonished, yet eagerly pleased lips.

Exhilarated by his loving speech, enticed by his intimate touch, excited by his enjoyable kiss, Nami puts all she got into this first press edition before pulling back in curiosity to see if it wasn't just a moonstruck fantasy, and the kind benevolent man truly did just receive her most energetic attentions under the bright planetary satellite - and still lived to tell the tale.

"Yes…yes…oh, yes! With you, Nami…Everything is so very _real_." Ousaki breathlessly succumbs to her will as he answers her question from before with a new twinkle in his eye and a satisfied pleasured smile up at the girl hovering over him vivaciously with the matching twinkle in hers too. The fire between them was alight so, that no matter how much time passed, they'd always be together, never to let go.

For Ousaki Shinobu and Amou Nami's looking glasses of love reflect each other's, eye to eye, heart to heart, soul to soul, promising to be mirrored side-by-side as kindred spirits forever who would stake both their futures on making their love...Real...


	64. Chapter 64 - Celebration of Love

**Chapter 64: "Celebration of Love"**

As she blindly follows Shimizu Keiichi's guided tour of the Maria Plain Basilica in all of its artistic and religious history, (as per the blonde angel's verbatim recitation of every tidbit of information his vast research had uncovered and his photographic memory recalled) Shouji Megumi lets out a soft sigh that only Fuyuumi Shoko heard.

Although hanging on every word on the arm of her beloved, who unconsciously drones on about the particular names of Saints who had either visited, served, or were laid to rest at this inspiring shrine, Fuyuumi's delicate ears were still able to pick up Shouji's light wispy breath from behind them.

"Are you all right?" Fuyuumi takes a step back, but Shimizu, in his element, was unaware of any change whatsoever. He simply continues to walk on forward as he marvels at the Basilika's towering high vaulted ceilings and impressive choir apse one more time before the graduating Seiso trio bid a farewell to it and their kindly escort in need of performing his nighttime duties and rituals. The holy man  
begins to to snuff out the candles they had specially lighted at Shimizu's relentless bequest with a long handled device even as slow-paced Shimizu still remained 'absorbing,' for the deacon must ready the Basilica for its peaceful rest for the remainder of the night.

"Shouji-san?" Fuyuumi softly scrutinizes the wistful face of the tawny haired girl with concern on her own previously contented features, now clouding.

"Hmm?" Shouji Megumi had wandered in both the physical and the abstract, her thoughts distantly absorbed as she finds herself in the far corner of the hall some feet away from the pair. A whimsical expression of perplexity every now and then unfolds upon her uncertain features as they gaze forlornly out the partly stained-glass Basilika nave window, overcome with repressed emotion of sad neglect and hopes dashed. She mentally tries to control her breath regulation and tear her eyes away from the road beyond the Basilika. But she was unable to accomplish either in her lonely despair.

"I'm sure Etou-kun didn't mean to—" The sweet empathic girl in Shoko tries to be that friend who would be there to talk to, to encourage her friend's problems of the heart and share in them.

_Just as Kaho-senpai was always there for me..._

"Please don't say his name!" Launching out despondently her disappointments against an innocent wide-eyed Fuyuumi, the subject far too tender, for the insecure girl felt she had done something irrevocably wrong to have cast down her much fantasized Violin Romance in such a short span of time.

Struggling for breath, Shouji's faraway eyes flicker from the window glass she seemed to be entranced in looking out, to meet Fuyuumi's for only a split second. But that moment was enough for the aqua maiden to glimpse the truth inside Shouji Megumi's heart—

The truth of her pain...

And the purity of her love...

"Megu-chan..." Fuyuumi's own eyes begin to fill with compassionate tears, made especially dear as her musical ears can just hear the words spilling from Shouji's whispered lips:

"It hurts so much...because I love him so much...and I know it's too much to hope now..." Wrapping her arms around her heaving chest, Shouji mouths her secret story of repentance to the holy figures depicted on the stained-glass. Her own eyes stained with tears in their gaze intently beseech the clouds through the dark night to lift and reveal the moon again, as if that might relieve the doubting heartache in her chest, if only to blind her dreams from harsh reality...

Before Fuyuumi, in all tender pity, could even fabricate a satisfactory answer to that touching, yet painful admission, a bewildering sound breaks through the still atmosphere, catching all of their ears.

The faint sound of jingling bells.  
_Jingle. Jingle. Jingle._

And the mystifying bells were soon joined by a deliberate pattering rhythm:

_Click clop, click clop, clickety clop, clickety clop._

As the singular sound of prancing hooves and bells jingling in time draw in tandem closer and closer, Shouji gasps, her heart in her throat when her discouraged eyes from a moment before glimpse of sight so indescribable it took her breath completely away now.

Without another sound or thought, she takes to her feet and dashes out into the cold night, running past a shocked Fuyuumi, then spinning through a sedately swaying Shimizu until he was dizzy by her frantic crashing into him, twirling him and setting him straight exasperatingly at the front entrance of the church where he was innocently standing in her speedy way before he knew what hit him.

For there, at the base of the long stairwell that led up to the Basilika entrance, was the horse-drawn carriage that her ears, if not her disbelieving eyes, sensed arriving before the Basilika's front step. As the carriage comes to a halt, its pair of gorgeous stallions with strings of bells on their bridles and harnesses ring in a timely fashion, as if portrayed in an epic movie set in a more romantic era that deserved a gold gilt carriage escort in all royal finery.

And if the glittering lantern lit carriage and stately well uniformed coachman accompanied by his magnificent white steeds prancing and pawing their long legs were not enough, the next sight was certain to steal whatever salvage of breath was left in Shouji Megumi's thrilled-beyond-belief lungs.

From the carriage steps a figure, both beautiful and divine in his slender youth and almost regally confident air, with every appearance truly of a gallant prince from a fairy tale of days once upon a time.

As Etou Kiriya swiftly strides up the steps to where Shouji was trembling in wait, his intoxicating eyes were entirely fixed upon her, his gaze ignoring the historic magnificent scenery to focus on nothing else, save for the most important significant thing that brought him here.._.Megumi..._

_Why can't I see anything else when I'm with you?_Shouji's own gaze could only see her Kiriya's ardent countenance as his eyes intently draw her into his, with the frank affection in them that was gratifying to her doubting mind.

As his long thin legs swiftly reach the top step, the eloquent silence that had passed through the cool air hangs between them a few endless moments more before Etou Kiriya's high-pitched, yet deep-souled voice filled with fervor, begins to speak, taking his lady's trembling hands gently yet firmly.

"Sorry for being late, Megumi. But I had a few things I wanted to do first, to make it perfect for you." His trademark quick smile was ever at the ready, as his lovely eyes motion back down the hill to the prim horse-drawn carriage and driver awaiting them.

"All this for me?" Her breath too stunned by this awesome experience to be bothered with asthma, Shouji could barely utter the response for the sheer excitement, she biting her lower lip in place of her hand's knuckle, for Etou, knowing her well, was not letting it go for her to achieve her subconscious nervous tick.

"Only the best." He reassuringly teases, pulling back his collar to tug at the fancy bow tie of the tuxedo he still wore beneath the fur-lined coat he was now handsomely donning.

"Oh, Kiriya." Looking down upon the shy girl, the young man smiles as he watches her cheeks color. He then gathers their pink rosiness in his long musical fingers with swift impulse, and kisses each fervently to his full moist lips, causing them to redden even further.

"Come with me. I've learned something about this city I have to show you..." Kiriya throatily whispers in her blushing ear dramatically the demand, a weak kneed Shouji feeling she may just faint instead.

"I—I mean—that is—May I ask you to accompany me on a little trip...Princess?" The drama turns adorable though as the once cocky boy cocks his head, remembering himself a gentleman in her startled eyes. He nervously messes with his wild mane of hair, totally unaware that framing his finely shaped head was the furry halo of his long dark blue-grey coat's hood, making him oh-so-cute in Shouji's besotted eyes.

"You may." All anxiety passes away in that moment as she giggles at his sweet smirking face, yielding to his undeniable charm unquestioningly as he hands her a pale pink Casablanca lily bloom.

_Princess?_ _I'll go anywhere you wish, my handsome Prince..._

Nearly swooning, she appreciates the sensation of his warm touch as Etou swiftly escorts her down the steps in a rush and ushers her towards his waiting carriage at the foot of the Basilika's tall steps.

Indeed, Shouji is quite swept away by this magnificent fairytale come true, as her enlarged eyes drink in the elegance of white horses and gold carriage that her handsome prince was steadying her on his arm into its satin lined interior as if she were really his Princess.

His confident smile on her making it all the more unreal, Kiriya taps the front window signaling the driver to begin the journey as if he had grown up being driven around in a horse-drawn carriage all his life.

* * *

"I don't know if this is the correct place for dancing, Shouji-san. But if you'd like, I'll gladly dance with you back at the house later, if it's not too late, that is. I've been practicing very diligently recently and I've become quite skilled at the slow fox trot." Shimizu says in his pleasantly lethargic way to a long gone recipient, once his head stops spinning around a good while after his dizzied body did.

"She's gone now, Keiichi." Fuyuumi comes back to say to him from where she was covertly spying on the wondrous romantic scene just outside the Basilika's front door.

"Oh." Shimizu mumbles, missing everything that went on in his surroundings yet again.

"Then... would you care to dance with me now, Shoko?" Shimizu gently asks, rather enjoying the thought of twirling and spinning around his Fuyuumi, her eyes widening at the blatant offer as the boy angel lifts his hands in position for his dancing partner to join him invitingly for an impromptu midnight foxtrot.

"Because I thought I heard...music playing just now..beautiful music...Like a celebration was about to take place..."

* * *

_Jingle. Jingle. Click clop, clickety clop, clop, clop..._

The night fills with a dazzling light as the moon fully emerges from the clouds that were previously shading its true glory. The pair of white steeds cut a classical path with their carriage through the dark night at a clipped pace to a location yet unknown to Shouji Megumi.

But it mattered not to her where she was heading as long as **he **wanted to go there with her. For several minutes along the carriage drive, she was almost in fear of speaking, as if her everyday words might break the magical spell, and the resplendent carriage and beautiful horses would just pop back into a bruised pumpkin and lowly little mice, and Cinderella may just transform back into an unnoticed, undeserving, unloved nobody far beneath the status of the handsome Prince Charming quietly seated before her in the coach.

Etou Kiriya appeared to be absorbed in solemn earnest thought himself as his observant eyes continue to look across upon her seriously as the drive went on, becoming more tacitly intense.

Nonetheless, there was something soft, almost vulnerable in Etou Kiriya's eyes now that made Shouji Megumi feel more ease than the fervent impervious gaze he had been giving her earlier during the impromptu concert at the amphitheater.

Unconsciously, as if to make sure this was real and not just a dream, she can't help herself from reaching out to touch and pet his long model-like chin, losing her usual shyness in the aura of this extraordinary circumstance's splendor. At her unexpected touch, Etou's eyes lift to connect with hers, widening as if fully awakened and equally fully sure of the unlimited future.

She pulls her hand back with a gasp, looking down in shame and the companionable silence ensues again as the horse-drawn carriage travels on quick stepped roads, Etou Kiriya's dark plum eyes boring into her lowered head in the darkness.

_There's so much I need to show you, Megumi. So much I learned about myself here, through you..._

After a few minutes to gain her composure again, Shouji's bashful eyes dare to glance up, feeling his ardent gaze upon her again, only to find it full of admiration and at times...

_Was that wistfulness? Gratitude? Hope? Or something more? _She could not imagine that the once unaffected lead violinist was giving her such a look, seeming engrossed with his study of her pale damask cheek's contrast with the streaming moonlight through the window.

_Through the window of my heart, I feel as if your light is calling out for me to swim in it. But like in all my dreams, I can't remember how!_

Sensing her unease and diverting his intent stare, Etou quells his own rising feelings when it's his turn to notice her wide eyes gazing in shy wonder back at him. He clears his throat before breaking the yearning silence, glancing out the window nervously as he speaks.

"In Vienna, when we went on that boat cruise and we stood on that hill, I felt something...I saw how you enjoyed visiting the old world castles there. So I thought..." His words were uncharacteristically timid as he turns back to face her in the carriage, soaking up how pretty she looked, awash in the moonlight flooding through the carriage window, causing him to pause his words and clear his throat again as he swallows hard.

"...So I thought, on our last night in Austria, you'd like to see the one that's close by here, too." As the horse's hooves keep time with the night, Etou finishes, sucking in air through his closed wide lips in embarrassment of displaying his true feelings to anyone.

Soon, the carriage driver pulls over for them to survey an impressive 16th century castle standing on another hill not so distant from the Altstadt center. In her sweet innocence, Shouji squeaks out in joy at the glorious sight.

"Unfortunately, there's no one there tonight, so we can't go in, but—" Etou gives a smirk at the recollection of Akihiko-san and the Kanazawas running around like chickens, pulling some strings at such short notice at the Swoboda Villa, to arrange for him to do this spontaneous jaunt tonight for his girl.

**_His_**_ girl..._

"Let's just say, a friend knew a friend of the guy who used to live here, and he got the the current occupants to let us visit the gardens and grounds tonight, at least. That is... if you'd like to, and it's not too cold..." The 16-year-old boy's innate confidence grows a bit sheepish at the end, his upper left lip curling in that cute way it did when he was unsure of himself, making Shouji smile, proud that he never treated her like a fragile porcelain doll like everyone else in her whole life did.

So Megumi jumps at the chance, her excited eyes drinking in the prospects of strolling around the gardens of the beautiful Anif Castle on her gorgeous beau's arm at this romantic time of night on their last outing on the Continent.

_Alone with him in a foreign land filled with music and romance?_ She'd have to be a fool to sit out this once-in-a-lifetime storybook chance to make unforgettable memories on account of cold weather!

And Shouji Megumi would never be a fool again.

"Oh, Kiriya! You are the most perfect boyfriend..." She giggles, in her overwhelming enthusiasm, unaware that she actually spoke her feelings vocally, as her eyes were glued to the exciting landscape awaiting them beyond the carriage's windowpanes she was pawing eagerly like a little child.

"I'm glad to hear you think so." Etou's inner arrogance regains his confidence in her ego-boosting comments, not disputing the state of their budding relationship one bit. He chuckles under his breath and signals for the driver of the carriage to enter the Wasserschloß grounds. As the horses pull them in closer, the impressive Neo-Gothic edifice looms tall and ornate before the young pair's eyes.

Once stopped, as the coachman opens the door for them to exit, Shouji isn't able to help from shivering in the cool night air until Kiriya pulls her shawl on around her, securing it tenderly as he leads her on the dimly lit path towards the scenic castle's famed gardens.

It was as if she were transported into another world, a beautiful, unblemished landscape, untouched by modern life. The night sky itself seemed to overflow with a dazzling light with only the moonlit castle spires as backdrop to the golden horsedrawn carriage that had brought them to this magical land of pure beauty. The white steeds suddenly break the crisp silence as they begin neighing and whinnying, as if to trumpet the couple's entrance to the dream world of their own _Violin Romance_...

It was a scrumptious dream that Shouji Megumi never wanted to wake from, knowing for a fact now that she **was** the luckiest girl on Earth, truly granted forgiveness for any evil her heart had previously trespassed before the prestigious, popular, and perfect Etou Kiriya came into her life...

The warmth of his wonderfully hot hands seemed especially heated tonight as one grips her palm tightly during their private excursion tour of the Anif gardens on this cool November night. But for some reason, in her excitement, she didn't feel a bit cold, as long as his inexplicably feverish hands were wrapped around hers.

Were his hands extraordinarily hot tonight? Or was that just her imagination? Was Kiriya not well? He certainly looked fine, although Shouji could almost feel an uncanny change come over the boy beside her with every step they walked further into the garden. It was as if he was ruled by need of some irrepressible impulse mysterious to her.

Shouji's breath coming out in puffs was the only evidence of her body reacting to the cold as the two stroll hand-in-hand through the so-dubbed 'Water Castle's' ample gardens and ornate grottoes. Along the path, well trimmed bushes were lined like sentries standing guard, promising to watch over where Angel Lamp flowers bloom every spring and nearby Casablanca lilies unfold their beauty as symbols of purity. The romantic notion that innumerable flowers, beneath the icy ground, all vowed to grow again in this beautifully pristine garden come Spring, gave her contented heart a happy smile as each spoke their own language of blossoming love to her tender heart.

Filled with renewed hope for his love, Shouji closes her eyes, hands clasped behind her back, and Etou looks upon her with the same protective smile of hope and promise she was envisioning through her imagination of unborn flowers come alive right now in her mind's eye. When she opens them up again, she enthusiastically points to a hill not so far away to discover the secret of the poinsettia patch calling to her when they stumble upon it, the flowers obviously carefully cultivated and grown to be in the traced shape a something special, if looked down upon from a distance.

Laughing as he is caught up in her exuberant excitement, Kiriya lets Megumi grasp his hand and they dash hand-in-hand up that hill. And now that they were up there, overlooking the poinsettia arrangement, Shouji could clearly make out what it was meant to be. The red petals of the many poinsettia created the perfect outline of a heart.

A red heart.

"Oh! I knew it! How lovely! This must've been planted **for** someone, **by** someone who's in—" Shouji catches her silly girlish notions at the last moment, in embarrassment pulling her hand from his and chewing on her own knuckle yet again, in shame...

"—love?" Etou surprises her by easily finishing her ashamed sentiment with a word she'd never heard him utter before. And Etou Kiriya was bereft of all embarrassment in saying it, thinking on the emotion deeply of late, as he pulls her hand away from her mouth subconsciously, by rote, and looks at her with his own heart in his eyes as she never seen before either.

"You're shivering, Megumi." He whispers in that throaty voice, gazing down with concern at her trembling little chilled digits he was clasping in his long wiry warm ones.

"Here—" He says, a tender resolution in his stunning eyes as they lock with hers.

"If you're cold, place your hands in my coat pocket." Etou's kindest voice was almost singing, as eyes and hands and heart all press Shouji's small shivering hands into his dark coat's right pocket meaningfully.

Blushing violently at his bold touch and intimacy, she obeys, burying both her hands into the deep warm pocket as Etou draws her now madly trembling body close to his. Bathed in the bright moonlight, even as the cold front moves in, neither felt the chill anymore, now in one another's tender embrace.

After a few moments of delicious delirium in such close welcoming proximity to her heart's desire, Shouji Megumi feels her warming hands cup around a small box of significant size. Her eyes were questioning, then widening, as she feels her way around the unbelievably precious treasure.

She quickly looks up into his steadfast eyes, her breath ebbing away, too shocked at the nod of his handsome face coupled with the earnest soothing look of encouragement there, more eloquent than a thousand words of poetry—

Or a thousand proposals.

Shouji's fingers shakingly remove the small object found in Etou's coat pocket. Her delicate musical members tremble in a flutter of awestruck hope and fear as she opens the lid of the wine colored velvety box—

Only to find it empty.

The awed fear of the moment is overtaken by surprise as she simply cocks her head in confusion.

"It's... empty, Kiriya." She barely manages a whisper, looking up to his teasing smiling eyes so enigmatically cute reflecting back.

With a depth beyond his years, his gorgeous eyes so expressive, Etou Kiriya takes both her hands cradling the little velvet box into his with the breathy words coming in puffs from his warm lips.

"Not empty, Megumi. Filled with dreams. Dreams set to the music** you **bring to me. I can't—" He swallows hard, searching for the right words to properly illustrate the meaning of how she's_ moved_ him in so many gentle ways, his unusually large Adam's apple fluctuating violently up-and-down as the once brash youth reveals a soft vulnerable side Shouji's never fully glimpsed before either.

"—I **won't** allow another day to go by without taking those dreams in my hands." He swallows hard, his words gathering her gaze in his.

"I've read somewhere: '_We are only travelers on this road, and walk each path but once.'_ "

"My dream is to walk them all, from now on, with you next to me, always, hand in hand." And with those hot hands of his, he squeezes hers, frozen with cold and fear, fiercely, melting both heart and soul with his intense gaze of veracity and purpose in life.

"That is, if you'll have me...?" Etou's languid hopeful eyes spoke volumes, his full lips, parted with the burning question, moist and gleaming in the moonlight as he licks them unconsciously in eager anticipation of her answer to his heartfelt query, possessed a humbleness he rarely—if ever—showed.

"Have you? Kiriya, I don't deserve you!" The sentimental girl whispers, feeling small under a hand covered mouth. Though filled with those same dreams of her own love for him, despite feeling undeserving of his attentions, never mind his love, she understood her Kiriya's poignant meaning completely, as tears form in her joyous eyes that made Shouji Megumi all the more beautiful to him this night.

His breathtaking smile complimented that rare beauty, as his noble brow raises, softly pleading the unspoken question as he leans down towards her in the calm moonlight, with an expression full of hope and longing.

"Yes! Oh, Yes, I will! I want to share in your path, your dreams, your music, so terribly much, Kiriya! I just want these days of yours and mine to never ever end!" Her voice wavering for breath chokes out proudly as she meaningfully kisses the empty interior of the deep wine colored ring case clutched between her whitened fingertips, caressing its velvety touch to her cheek as she nestles her head against his furry hooded jacket's chest.

Since the moment his heart made this momentous decision, Etou Kiriya knew he wanted to offer something precious to this girl who had somehow managed to become dear to his inexperienced young heart in the matter of love he was heretofore unconcerned with. In one swift motion, he tugs the silver chain from his neck and removes the pendant hanging from it, squeezing it thoughtfully in his sweaty palm before producing the sentimental piece to her as an offer of his heart.

Glistening before her astonished eyes in the moonlight, the crimson gemstone on the ring catches its reflective shine as Etou Kiriya humors of thought in his mind that only his Megumi's overjoyed smile could equal the moon's radiant splendor this night.

Aglow within herself, she envisions the gemstone ring's offered double meaning. For it was the Seiso school ring that had belonged to Kiriya's mother, the ring for luck and out of love he continually wore around his neck since before they first met.

"Megumi, I'm not the type to talk of love. I'm the type to show it." He was in an unpretentious tone by now, the deep beauty in his voice quite intangible as he takes her in sinewy arms and offers her his softest kiss.

As their young lips taste each other's warm sweetness for the first time, the tenderness turns quite as passionate as everything else Etou Kiriya approaches in his life. In the cold autumn night, the heat between them builds as the kiss lingers hotly on fervent lips reveling in their first reward.

_Tonight, dreams come true! In that box of dreams, find my love included there, my Precious... _

Breathless after parting their robust first kiss, with longing in his eyes, Kiriya's heart speaks to hers as he slips the ring on Shouji's left-hand third finger. Her engagement ring finger.

As her poor struggling, yet jubilantly liberated, lungs gasp for air, she feels strangely strengthened as Etou's arms wrap around her with his own strong, determined ones, full of life's passion he would give to her freely.

"In the Spring, I'll bring you here again, to see these flowers in full bloom. I promise, Megumi. Let's meet our new morning here." A romantic at heart, Etou's long chin motions over her shoulder to the still, icy gardens, whose eager young leaves, beneath the cool Earth crust, just like they two, were anxiously awaiting for the flower of their Spring to come to full fruition and meet the sparkling warmth of the Sun's glistening fulfillment for their life's journey to begin...

Just as Shouji's tears of utter blissful happiness and ecstasy were about to fall in response, so too does the dark sky open and send its own wintery gift in exchange. But the snowflakes melting on her cheeks and tickling her nose cause her to giggle instead.

Etou Kiriya, at first disoriented by her jovial response to his serious aspect admission, decides on second thought he is rather pleased by the sound of her delicious laughter, wanting to hear more of it, for it echoed music in his pleased soul in ways she would not fully comprehend until their souls were to cleave unto one another's and become whole someday. Perhaps it would be sooner than anyone would have dreamed for the teenaged genius violinist, who wasted no time in his life or the road once traveled, now that he had claimed his sweet 17-year-old accompanist, who suited and complimented him perfectly...

_Before too much time goes by, Megumi, I will take you in my arms as my own..._

Stroking her smooth caramel brown head after showering her with multiple kisses of all different varieties more, Etou takes off his coat and wraps that too around her petite shoulders, vowing to protect and watch over her tender delicate beauty always.

Just then a pair of stars cross the sky over the castle's peaks, as songbirds, rustling in the bows of the trees above, soar on the night winds to blithely carol the new lovebirds, joining in the revelry as if inspired by this land of pure beauty where blossoming first love was discovered by Etou Kiriya and Shouji Megumi.

As notes dance through the sky, the storybook white horses at their golden carriage whinny as the pair of young lovers walk hand in hand through snows to return to it for Etou to retrieve his violin to serenade Shouji with its most romantic strains, inspired by the melody of love chiming in the very air about them, accompanied by Nature's soft |harmony of young love's winning approval. In response, flurrious snowflakes coat the castle and its countryside like a fairytale dream, enveloping them both in its wispy tableau, where the flawless soundof his music, there and then, swore an oath to echo eternally in Shouji's grateful ears...

As strains of this Violin Romance flare to a glorious crescendo, their hearts speak to each other as they walk through the freshly fallen snow. Hand-in-hand, they take passage on moonbeams far on the horizon beneath stars they designate when Kiriya realizes they were sparkling especially bright, if just for his Megumi. Warm and secure in each other's coat pockets full of beautiful dreams, were unending days and musical nights of a future promised, imprinted on every flake of dancing falling snow playing symphonies on the strings of this new and wondrous Violin Romance's 'Celebration of Love'...


	65. Chapter 65 - Truly, I Love You

**Chapter 65: "Truly, I Love You"**

Snowflakes filled with promise glisten in the full moonlight, la Luna working her magic overtime tonight, as the brilliant heavenly body hangs especially low, breaking through the darkness. Its moonbeams decoratively cross stars over the horizon as if by design upon another couple whom the magical violin's wondrous strings have decided to draw together in its musical beauty therein.

_Long before the glittering stars were even born, the promise that we two would meet was made then..._

Tsukimori Len chides himself silently for contemplating these far-off thoughts as his mesmerizing eyes break free from the entrancement of the bright starry sky above. Dotted with newly fallen snow flakes, the darkness itself is swallowed up by the penetrating moon whose face is at last shown to smile fully upon their languid stroll back towards the Swoboda Villa this final special night.

_I can only feel this way because of you, Kahoko. You've altered my entire outlook on life. My once grey world is now filled with color and light, just as you changed my uninspired music, attaching your heartfelt tones to be with my soul..._

It didn't take a genius to see how fathoms deep in love this handsome,distinguished young man was hopelessly in.

The rustling bows above their heads remind the once only prosaic Tsukimori Len that he had a purpose this night for _proposing_ this late-night stroll down the poignant Altstadt lanes with his beautiful redhead clinging to his arm all the while. Her hair done up so maturely, looking quite stunning, fashioned in her layered blue concert dress, her pale alabaster skin was positively glowing beneath the warm white fur trimmed mantle that Caterina had exchanged with her earlier, overhearing of the pair's ventured stroll back to the Villa.

Whilst Len had remained stoically silent for most of the pleasant walk as he battled within himself for just the right moment to broach the tender subject occupying his mind for days nearly constantly by now, Kahoko was just the opposite.

At every turn of the historical, seemingly untouched by time avenues, Kahoko found some new wonder or breathtaking beauty to remark upon enthusiastically. Her buoyant happiness at physically being on her love's much dreamed of arm blinded her to any awareness of his anxiety as she praised the fir trees, magnificent and tall, the brilliant moon, bright and large, and even the scenic path, deliciously winding, as it glistens in the newly fallen snow that awaited around each undiscovered corner anew.

For beneath all of her excited 'oohs and ahhs', Hino Kahoko could feel the weight of the hands of time closing in upon her._ Sigh._

As each falling snowflake glitters before her eyes, Kahoko imagines her dearest wishes, like the spinning, cartwheeling snowflakes, were being transformed into glistening jewels, the like of which the whole entire earth had never seen before.

._..A pure white Wonderland..._

"Oh, Len! Look at this place! It's as if you and I are inside a snowflake water globe!" Her golden eyes soak up each illuminated snowflake in the refracted moonlight as the couple pauses in the quiet lane. Kahoko spins around on her cerulean blue heels with dizzying effect of her long swishing skirts and encircling furs and wraps as she becomes part of the tree-lined winter scene like a dazzling magic snow queen in a fantasy glass-domed globe.

"... Beautiful..." The reserved fellow comments more though on the gorgeous vision of the young lady and the sparkling aura left in her wake than merely the landscape she extolled so highly. Len sees the pristine beauty more perfectly in the undeniable wonder of the girl in this moment than any of the other breathtaking sights of nature surrounding as he wraps his scarf around her shoulders to guard against the flurries of snow cascading down.

Kahoko looks up to his concerned face, dizzily breathless.

"It's like this past week has been a dream. An unbelievable dream..." With all the vigor of her excitement seconds ago building to a trembling climax with her final spin, Hino Kahoko takes a cherished deep breath of the crisp cool air, yet mild for this time of year, so fresh and clear and cloudless that one could easily glimpse the surface of the moon if you could concentrate on it long enough.

With the newly falling snow dusting her shoulders, Kahoko gazes up at that moon, making her look so part of this ethereal world, Len drinks her aspect in. He longs to sing her praises amidst a mixture of throbbing heartbeats, his _tsundere_ soul unable to find the words though; Len eternally grateful for the greatest miracle of his lifetime to discover her magic in the wonder of her eyes...

That's when he notices on her lovely face's profile the glistening pools amidst the gold, and he gasps, Len startled from his reverie.

"I'm fine. I'm not crying...It's just the moonlight hurts my eyes against this darkness." Hino makes a sad excuse as she wipes away any traces of dewy wetness from her eyes with her fur muff as she turns to show him her bright smile again, bravely. But he could still sense her  
tormented hidden sadness, behind the smiles.

Sense it. Feel it. Embrace it. For she made everything in his world so different and new with the nourishment of her intangible magical dreams and the beauty of her indomitable golden light.

And that Light of his eyes was now clouded by tears... because of him...

"... But I'm not ready to wake up from the dream just yet ...not yet..." In more of a whisper, the tears visible in the girl's big forlorn eyes call him to focus all his concerned attention on her fully.

For that selfsame magic was a fragile master. The emotion of her joy of before, melting faster than the crystal flakes resting in the warm palm of her outstretched hand to the heavens.

"Kahoko?" Tsukimori felt the pathetic effect of her words carve like a knife through his heart. He believed he could extinguish that pain, he sincerely thought he knew how to alleviate it, he had the tender resolution to achieve the goal he desperately has been trying to contend for the honor of, be master of it—but—

So far every single attempt had been interrupted, paling his confidence in the matter, though not his ardor...

_If only I could find the words... to make it right!_

"Kahoko—"

"Len—"

Both speak each other's name simultaneously after a few quiet reflective moments in the quiet moonlight.

"Excuse me."

"Pardon me."

Kahoko chuckles awkwardly after she and Len even apologize at the same time.

"Hee, hee, hee." Hino Kahoko wanted to kick herself more than nervously giggle for cutting off any of her subdued Tsukimori Len's sentiments. Scrutinizing his anxiously perturbed yet still gorgeously handsome countenance, she could see his entire heart was in his eyes, as if he needed to divulge some secret he held there with her, but just couldn't spit it out for fear of the words coming out all wrong...

"You first." She invitingly encourages both with words and widely smiling eyes.

"No, you, please." Polite Len bows his head reverently to her, still in courteous apology.

"Really, I want to hear what you were going to say." Kahoko honestly admits, her edgy nerves wearing a bit thin.

"No, I insist, you should—" Tsukimori Len had been brought up a proper gentleman, with proper polite manners, especially in consideration of the female variety, to a well-trained fault.

"LEN! Stop being so docile!" But tonight, their last night, she couldn't take it anymore, her redheaded temper showing in the rare moment as Kahoko explodes in tense frustration, acutely aware that her Len had something **_very _**important on his mind all week and just couldn't spit it out!

_Docile_ Tsukimori turns every synonym for 'Coward!' over in his cluttered head for a second or two as he slowly recovers from the shock of her sudden blow up. His covert glance secretly takes in his lovely Kahoko standing there, first wrenching her hands as she tries to gather herself, then reaching out to him pleadingly, wrapped in soft white furs and blue satins with an aura of Golden light...

– that glint of the golden hued bond of the magical violin string that gifted his lonely soul with the blessed opportunity to be entwined with her warmth and love for the rest of his life... and into Eternity, where music never ceased to play the heart's true melody...

.._.The Sound of Love.._.

"This is our last night together...Len... please talk to me. I'm right here, listening."

There was a symphony of tears—beseeching tears, joyful tears, regretful tears, hopeful tears, confused tears, expectant tears, tears of wonder, tears of love—playing behind her shining eyes. So deep and soft he almost dare not gaze at them for pause of being swept into their ocean as the two stand face to face in the night if not for the total sense of understanding in the look she was finally washing over him through the still air.

_...My last chance to say what I truly feel to my precious one..._

He stares meaningfully at the empty hand reaching out for his, just the same hand as was reaching in every dream for these past two years apart...

"I have been a coward." Quietly, Tsukimori whispers to the sky more to himself than to the girl before him.

With swift impulse, Kahoko feels the sudden rush of cold air just as suddenly replaced by a restlessly fervent heated embrace. She was wrapped in his warmth with the alacrity that his strong violinist arms and musical genius hands could easily perform. Kahoko was at first disoriented by his uncharacteristic sudden display of outward emotion, then soon finds herself reveling in its intimacy.

"Kahoko, ever since the sound of your violin first reached out to me, I've longed for nothing more than to embrace you like this. Stand by you. Be there for you. To have my heart filled with you. I never want to let you go again. I **_can't_** let you go!" There was a desperation in Len's now husky voice that never existed before, Kahoko feeling his passion as he hugs her to his chest tightly as if really intending never to let her physically go.

"Every answer in my life I couldn't find anywhere but in you. Every desire burning in me is for you alone, Kahoko..." Tsukimori's every feature was gorgeous, washed in the moonlight, as he gazes intently down upon her, talented fingers clutching her shoulders as if holding onto the most precious instrument that would play the music of his life.

"All this time apart, your invisible hands have never let go of me for one second. Every waking moment of every day since the day I left, everything I see and do, has that special singular glow of you illuminated in it." Tsukimori motions with his eyes to the stars and the moon, her light surpassing even theirs, in his faithful mind, in his loving heart.

"For you are the light of my eyes, my Kahoko." Tsukimori Len's heart spills open, like waves upon the clear moonlit ocean, as his melodic voice whispers lucidly in her astonished hair the words held in him that could not be denied a moment longer.

"Really, truly, Len?" Her breath was quite taken away by his expressive words, Kahoko pulls back to meet his eyes gazing down at her lovingly. Len did not have the slightest objection to her wrapping her arms around his neck, for it gave him the opportunity to capture a kiss on her glossy lips as he encircles her thin waist within his long slender arms.

"Truly, I love you." He answers, heart in his eyes as he strokes back a stray lock of her red hair, caught aflame in the vivid moonlight.

"I was so afraid that some lucky Viennese girl would steal you away from me, so far away... for so long..."

As their lips part, she breathlessly confesses her secret girlish fears, though deep down inside she never doubted her Len's fidelity.

"Kahoko, listen to me." Len seriously gazes in her eyes, lifting her pouty chin in his skilled fingers.

"No matter how far away, even though separated, our hearts are one. To the ends of time, I would wait for you. No one could ever take your place in my heart, because this love we've found is so true, so precious to me, oceans could not stand in the way of the depth of my love for you."

"Oh." After a bit of a proud introspective smile at her Len's sweet  
romancing again, Hino can't help her spirits from being doused at his last words, the sympathetic figure turning her head away as she fights the claustrophobic sadness of time sailing away all the faster.

For the immediate present, tomorrow in fact, an airplane and an ocean or two really were to separate the happy couple for another two years—and then who knew at last when he'd come home again? Tsukimori's stint at the Vienna Conservatory may be extended for a higher degree at the legendary music college for another two years to be followed by the assurance that the genius violinist would surely have an illustrious career upon Europe's classical stage. He had garnered the high praises not only of his proud professors, but also the promise that Seiso's recent successful concert, in which already becoming famed Tsukimori, had officially launched him on the Vienna Opera House's most prestigious stage.

"Kahoko." His usually soft breathy voice takes on a commanding determined air that made the girl in question come to attention immediately.

"**_No_** ocean will stand between us ever again. I promise, I won't allow it anymore. Not just intangible hands connecting us anymore, Kahoko. I will hold onto these flesh and blood hands for as long as I have life in me. You do believe me, don't you, Kahoko?" As he speaks this declarative statement of his impassioned plea, Tsukimori squeezes her lace gloved hands meaningfully as he pours out the rest of his soul, kissing them to his lips. His confidence grows with every word as his querying eyes peer around to catch her forlorn head turned away until his noble brow and irresistible gaze is too much for her to deny any longer.

"Because I have learned, with every fiber in me, to believe in _you_. Now I need for you to believe in _me_. I want you to be with me, Kahoko. Life has no meaning for me alone without you. Do you  
understand that? Nothing else matters to me, but you. These lonely years apart have taught me that—and I am absolutely certain of it now." Profoundly spoken, Tsukimori Len offers her his assuring smile and steadfast eyes as he tells her his life-changing decision clearly and succinctly.

"I am returning home to Kanagawa with you tomorrow—for good."

"But—I don't see how—the Vienna Conservatory! Len, your career—? You have to sta—!"

Though overjoyed inwardly, the selfless heroine in Hino Kahoko begins to argue the point of her beloved throwing away his promising career in music just to be...

_...With me?_

But both her tearful thoughts and heartfelt words are arrested in the middle of her speaking—in fact everything flies from her astonished head—as a red hot blush colors her already rosy cheeks even rosier as delicate sensibilities stop her in her tracks. Hino dares not imagine to look down to see what his hands were doing as she feels Tsukimori's musical fingers first play on her collarbone, then her neck, to settle on her now shawl-less upper chest.

The innocent blush deepens even further as her curious bedazzled eyes can't help but steal a glance downward to witness Tsukimori Len go down on one knee in the freshly dusted snow to take hold of her surprised, now frozen stiff, left hand.

"Kahoko, I am only complete when I'm with you. Without you, my music, my world, my life is only hollow and empty. I cannot even imagine what would have become of me, if I had not met you."

"Over and over again, let's discover each other, until all past tears are washed away." Tsukimori lightly wipes away a tear still staining her cheek with a tender thumb reaching up to her mesmerized face.

"Please let me always watch over you. We'll find new ways to cherish every day together—even into eternity...It's the one prayer I've held close all this time." Tsukimori pauses in the romantic speech that he'd been trying to express all week, that despite all the self practice and perfecting, was delivered with more truthful spontaneity than he gave himself credit for, with evident love on his well-favored features as he looks up to her with hopeful anticipation.

A perfect gentleman on one graceful knee, he proffers the stunning blue diamond ring, set on the delicate engraved golden band that had been entwined in a symbolic embrace with the wedding ring patiently awaiting on Kahoko's necklace pendant for these two years.

"Kahoko, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" Tsukimori Len proudly asks the immortal verse, repeated by true lovers throughout the ages, each one beautiful and unique, but none reaching lofty notes as magically set to majestic glorious music as Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko's Violin Romance...

"Oh, Len!" Every lonely sadness, every sorrowful pain, every aching fear are all dashed away from her dizzied mind and anxious heart forever in that split second after he finishes posing the question.

Time stops as Kahoko freezes in place, wanting to scream and cry and shout for joy at the same time, she longing for this moment her entire life and it was so much more perfect and poignant than even she could fantasize in any dream.

Because Tsukimori Len is no longer just a dream for her.

Because Hino Kahoko is the only dream he'll ever have.

The highly emotional, romantically sentimental words none would think could pass from the stoic young man's cultured lips of yesterday, but, through her, the once emotionless boy had learned to be a man ruled by his heart and not just his head. And his heart was certain that his love for Kahoko was stronger than any need or want for fame or notoriety in a musical field he once thought was all the future he had.

If she was to be his violin's only audience, then so be it. Kahoko was the only one who really mattered, the only one his strings longed to play for on every day and every night to come. This will be his true happiness—his violin's utmost contentment—to play duets with one another for a lifetime.

The scene could be no more beautiful, no more elegant, with a fine dusting of snow flakes glittering in the brilliant moonlight that carried cool, but by no means harsh breezes. They caress both of Hino Kahoko's rosy cheeks, warm with an inner glow of love as her  
enraptured face gazes down upon her handsome suitor's pretty boy face framed by a shock of icy blue hair, his noble nose and well-cut mouth set on quite a winsome chin, just as aesthetically breathtaking to her as when she first saw him.

And as for his entrancing eyes? Kahoko could admire Tsukimori Len's feline eyes and overall cool beauty endlessly as she feels herself almost floating upon the wings of her dreams now unlocked to the world of a perfect white Wonderland, beneath a mixture of throbbing heartbeats and twinkling constellations...

As he kneels down before her, this pristine moment would be forever etched in both their vivid recollections as a page in a memory book to last the rest of their lives...and beyond...together...

In this endless moment of utter enchantment, Kahoko, instead of either shouting or crying, softly nods with a small murmured squeak of affirmation as, with his utterly beautiful long fingers, her gallant blue knight in shining armor slips the golden ring with the rare blue diamond that she has guarded upon her neck every day for the past two years since he left Japan, now in its rightful place upon her left ring finger, making it official at last.

The set of entwined rings were given then with an open-ended promise, and were joyously accepted now. Kahoko's head was still spinning from the momentous question she had been patiently waiting for to be so tenderly asked. Tsukimori romantically kisses the ring and then the finger it encircled, turning each of her hands over until he was kissing both her palms with a look of utter adoration on his devoted face gazing lovingly up at her. A pair of silent violins playing a new duet build to a heart moving crescendo as melody and harmony together combine in a way that only they two hear amidst their triumphant Violin Romance's strains as lips meet lips, full of longing and promise immersed in a lifetime of music...

* * *

But before either of them have a chance to utter a word or thought to one another after parting the powerfully momentous kiss, strange music breaks through the Austrian night's quiet stillness in the distance.

More like a strange sound. A really strange sound. And it was swaggering closer.

"This is where" _hiccup! _everything" _hiccup! _begins!"

_hiccup_ "Hee Hee Hee..." _hiccup!_

_"...S_tarting out with" _hiccup! _a simple prayer!" _hiccup!_

The "singing" was growing louder, Hino and Tsukimori having just enough time to exchange a bewildered look as a spasmodic _POOF! _of multicolored lights materialize their chaotic shimmers into one Lili the Magic Fata.

One _drunk _Lili the magic Fata, swerving his lighted dot of a pixie form to and fro across the dark snowy sky.

"...the one belief"_ hiccup! _Ni nareba!" _hiccup!_

In his currently intoxicated state, Lili's language skills (already in question, "No da!" you know!) fluctuate tongues as well as keys that were quite improperly hit. For being a music Fata, his notes flatted on musical scales that suffered greatly.

"Du Bist Mein Heart—Whoops! Wrong song, wrong era, scary guy, you know! Hee hee hee hee." Lili chuckles as he "corrects" his musical mishap quite incoherently, sleepily sinking to the ground, disoriented.

"Lili?" Hino Kahoko kneels down to where her little friend was vegetating on the ground at Tsukimori's feet.

"HINO KAHOKO! TSUKIMORI LEN! Why are you two flying in the sky higher than me, you know?" Lili intoxicated, asks with a silly smile pasted on his delirious face soon after he asks.

"We're not flying, Lili! You're lying on the ground!" Yet unable to suppress a giggle at her happiest moment, Hino Kahoko cups a soft sympathetic hand under the drunken fairy's head for a pillow.

"And why am I doing that, Hino Kahoko, you know? I was just having a farewell bash with my Salzburg Fata Family, you know?" Lili continues to happily chortle in between exaggerated sluggish words.

"Perhaps it is because you've imbibed too many alcoholic drinks whilst you were celebrating." Tsukimori Len's strict upbringing and stoic behavioral habits left no room for useless frivolities such as partying—or drinking.

_"_Alcohol—?! Lili! I am surprised at you!" Kahoko feigns disappointment, but was unconvincing with that unsinkable euphoric smile still on her glowing face, for nothing anyone could do tonight could make her truly upset, Tsukimori Len's engagement ring finally firmly on her blissful finger.

_hiccup! "_Good 'Ole Irish ale & tasty Austrian Elderberry wine...You know! No da!" With one final salute, Lili sinks into Hino's hand, giggling uncontrollably as magical bubbles begin to drift up in funny animal shapes from its burping mouth.

"Were almost back the Villa now, Lili. We'll take you home to get some rest, you'll be better soon." In her best attempt at a worried brow, Hino moderately holds the nuzzling fairy in her cupped hand.

"Kahoko, wait." Tsukimori halts her with a strong hand on her shoulder

"An intoxicated Fata may be dangerous. Here, let me carry it." In his first duty as a husband-to-be, Tsukimori Len protectively warns, and despite his better judgment, he relieves his new fiancée _(Whoo-hoo! Go Kahoko! It only took you 600 pages, Len!) _of her pitiful charge, carefully cradling the little glowing yellow and sky blue burden in his own hands. Luckily, Lili was far too passed out by now to notice the change of the guard.

"Let's go." A scowling Tsukimori had rather imagined a more romantic turn in the moonlight with his darling beloved intended on their first stroll together as an engaged couple, but he was getting accustomed to these unfortunate little escapades that seemed to be part and parcel of Hino Kahoko's world.

A wonderful magical world he longed to be full partner of, from now on, no matter what comes along the way.

So that meant he was in for it now.

_For richer, for poorer. In fairies and in health. _

_'Til death—no—unto Eternity— do we never part..._

_For you, I would walk through fire..._

Tsukimori Len frowns down at the snowy winged freeloader in his hand, but a smile replaces it as Kahoko placidly attaches herself to his arm, humming the classically treasured tune of their love: "Salut d'Amour", in her own pleased ecstasy...

Every now and then, the two violinists' eyes meet in pure soulfulunderstanding of each other's feelings.

_Clip clop. Jingle jingle jingle._

"Did you hear something just now?" Kahoko's ears strain upon hearing of faraway sound of... horse's hooves... and... bells?

"Only my Darling's lovely voice humming." Thrilled by his new affectionate term for her, Kahoko forgets the world beyond her own 'Darling's' pleased adoring eyes on her, Len feeling exactly the same.

Len and Kahoko whisper affectionate words as not to awaken the slumbering fairy between them in glorious tones that only prove to arouse greater emotion with every passing moment.

"Kahoko, I'll be forever grateful for the miracle I found you." Tsukimori Len, with a smirk and a small grateful nod, acknowledges the small creature in his hands who played a vital role in bringing his Kahoko to him to set into glorious motion their fortuitous Violin Romance, forever bonded in _La Corda D'Oro..._

"Truly, I love you..." Tsukimori whispers on the golden winds, the breathy tenor his musical voice carrying a resplendent song to Kahoko's heart.

"...my Darling..." He leans over with a soft loving kiss as the miraculous pair in musical destiny take their final turn under the Austrian moon towards their tomorrow's melody...

_..Take me anywhere...high into the heavens..._

_...Because I am yours, forever..._

_...This romance is one in a thousand..._

_...Thank you for your love... _


	66. Chapter 66 - Intoxicated By Love

**Chapter 66: "Intoxicated by Love"**

As midnight's glistening moon began to cast magical shadows over the students' Swoboda Villa retreat, the gang had slowly, group by group, pair by pair, returned from each of their evening's romantic encounters. Unforgettable memories were made before this night's end for each and every one of them. The "Girl Power" team's benevolent efforts for the sake of their dear friend Kahoko, once again proved that goodness will be rewarded when the final tallies are told and true riches are discovered in selfless acts of charity, hope and love...

Speaking of that last word, cherished in many a young girl's heart, each of our heroines have found their individual romances that had blossomed, perhaps in some cases, quite unexpectedly in Vienna, now in glorious full bloom here in Salzburg.

Absorbed in their own pleasant thoughts and affairs, the couples who had returned early had already retired, as per instruction, to undoubtedly sleepless happy dream lands awaiting young minds where guest room beds were beckoning to ease away the delirious exhaustion of the demanding, yet successful past week or so gone by.

With all the sickeningly sappy teenagers and making goo-goo eyes young adults safely tucked away in their separate beds, the two pairs of chaperones were anxiously waiting up into the late night hour for the final two couples remaining out still on the lam.

Now, whilst reliable Tsukimori Len may be the dull, diligent, decent sort of a chap that gave Kanazawa Hiroto absolutely no cause for worries out so late left to his own devices with one Hino Kahoko, brash, bold, and brazen Etou Kiriya was a different story in overprotective Kira Akihiko's book entirely...

"Take it easy, 'Unc!'" The former teacher's deep gregarious voice comes from behind the windowpane that the dark man continually glares through each time he pauses in his incessant pacing back and forth through the Casa's luxurious sitting room.

_Feel so good!_

Without giving his former "senpai" even the courtesy of a cursory glance, the dark Director merely responds to his best friend with a disconcerted grunt.

Kanayan pushes back his curled lavender bangs with a smirk. He was seated at the table already set before him with a fare of tempting midnight vittles, consisting of mugs filled with breadsticks and choco covered churros for the adults to munch on as they wait for the remaining two pairs of returning travelers.

Kanayan exchanges a crooked look with his wife, who was just then busying herself in preparing coffee and sandwiches for the two men after coming down, under her worried husband's protests of tonight's fragile health. Caterina claimed to 'feel better already,_ 'Because you are so very cute with late night stubble!_'' And, after all, she had been "in" on this night's excitement just as much as these two and deserved to know the fruit of their evening's rushed labor as much as they, the moment word arrived back!

_But all that man's pacing to and fro is rather dizzying! _Cat secretly steadies herself on the table where she was pouring out hot tea and freshly made java.

"The way you dote on that boy, Kira! You're like an old Papa rather than just an Uncle! Worrying over kids puts years on a man, mark my words." Kanayan smirks, smugly teasing as his wife pauses in setting the midnight buffet out to give her hubby a faraway look of consternation he didn't quite grasp, only chuckling it all off as he sips his hot coffee.

The director of SeisoAcademy ignores both his friend's words and chortles, as Kira continues his anxious strained glances out the various windows in the sitting room overlooking the drive entrance road for the returning horsedrawn carriage that these three senior members of the group had more than a hand in arranging the dramatically romantic scene at Etou Kiriya's request.

After all, without Caterina's lofty connections to those at the reins (so to speak) of the running at the Casa Austria, and without Kanayan's friendliness with the equestrian caretakers out in the Duke's private stables on the grounds, where her erstwhile 'Hiro' spent a great deal of time in the beginning of their marriage, smoking—the bad habit having at least some good use now, not to mention without there being more than a few Austrian philharmonics and Dutch guilders lavished upon the quickly rustled up driver, carriage and stable hands at the ready with noble steeds on overtime specialties, that Kira himself saw to—

—Etou and Megumi's horse-drawn adventure may never have rode into the romantic moonlight.

"Especially when they're not children anymore." Tsuzuki Mari comments on the side to Caterina. Full of feminine insinuation, the two women gossip as Mari brings in a plethora of cakes and cookies with cream cheese and chocolate frosting she had been painstakingly applying to the late night desserts in the kitchen as the talented soprano's repast snack making sous chef. Mari observantly knew that her reticent Akihiko-san, despite his cool demeanor, was really a 'Sweets Monster' when it came to indulgent sugary desserts, the prim Tsuzuki-san, who never cooked anything lavish before in her orderly life, had put extra love into preparing some sweet treats just for him.

"But little ones are such precious creatures until that time arrives, no?" Caterina coos almost wistfully over children as a whole before they reach the 'mature' age of 16 or so.

"Nah! Grandkids'll be the end of you, Kira, my friend! And at the rate that young charge of yours is going, you'll be old and grey before your time!" Kanayan can't help but throw one last jab at his tight-lipped kohai, who still was keeping silent vigil at the windowsill. But Kira's one eyebrow raises involuntarily at the thoroughly unpleasant thought lobbed at him nonetheless, as Caterina sticks a sticky bun in the guilty smiling mouth of her humorous hubby in a wrathful swat on his tushie with a dishtowel when he starts a cat laugh at his friend's discomfort.

Despite the chuckles and giggles of the licky sticky scene of "marital bliss," Kira's highly attuned ears prick up.

But it wasn't the much anticipated sound of bells and horse hooves clattering on the Casa's pavement drive that he had heard. No, it was more like—

A Fairy humming.

"Not now..." The dark man murmurs darkly under his already stressed-to-the-breaking-point breath.

That damn Fata and all the trouble it brought along with it was all he needed tonight!

And if Kira Akihiko thought Lili the Fata was an annoyance before, he had no idea what bad hand was about to be dealt to him now...

The staccato hiccups that routinely interrupt the off-balanced slurred humming causes the serious director to wonder in profound deliberation of the inequities of this world, mainly concerning his part of its unfortunate direction.

_BLINK! _

In an odd display of colorful lights and magical sparkles, Lili the tipsy Fata zaps into existence mere millimeters right before Kira's disoriented, yet resignedly expectant eyes.

_Why me?_

"Hi there, you know, Kira Akihiko, 'Ole Buddy! You know!?" Lili giddily drawls out his reluctant benefactor's grandson's full name loudly, knowing how Kira distinctly disliked the figment of hisimagination to personally address the distinguished Director, especially before a live audience. Kira generally preferred to pretend the difficult creature did not exist.

But this time Lili's antics were way too over the top for Kira's normally civilized, now absolutely frazzled, mind to handle.

"WE ARE NOT 'OLD BUDDIES,' ARGENTO!" Kira growls the angered exclamation in low aggressive tones, every head in the room standing to attention at the heretofore silent man's sudden threatening outburst.

Everyone, except the one its foreboding doom was intended to be  
angrily unleashed upon.

"Heeheehee! Ooh, scary face_ hiccup _you know?! _hiccup_!" Giggling, then audibly hiccoughing right in Kira's face, Lili pokes a disturbingly arrogant finger right into the man's creased forehead.

"I am _hiccup_ really, _hiccup _truly, _hiccup _hurt, you know!?_ hiccup!" _Lili then rather emotionally begins to laugh and sob simultaneously.

"Argento? Are you—?" Quite surprised by the innane imp's usual insanity now gone way over the top, Kira abates his own anger long enough to study the swaying unsteadily—both physically and emotionally—in mid-air flying fairy.

But was he going too far to accuse the annoying irksome creature of actually being—?

**_BURP!_**

For such a big belchy burp to emanate from Lili the Fata's tiny mouth, Kira is stunned by the sheer rudeness in the alcoholic stench, as his eyes slit at the pesky creature with disbelieving disdain.

"Look what the cat dragged in! Whoa, that little fella's loaded, Kira! What's been your poison, Lili?" Kanayan saunters up to where the drunken fairy was busily swaying back and forth and up and down in the air before an embarrassed Kira Akihiko's astonished eyes.

"You can smell the proof on his breath enough to ignite a small brush fire—or two! Whew whee!" An unfortunate victim of the evil vice in the past himself, Kanayan knew, all too well, drink's unseemly aftereffects.

He oh-so-delicately lifts and holds at arm's-length the drunken drifter by its ineffective wings from where Lili sank behind a nook of the Duchess' treasured curio cabinet of defenseless Maison porcelains, coming way too close but thankfully not breaking any in his careless state.

In his limp, head hung unresponsive condition, Lili could've resembled a few of the more grotesque figures on display than he'd like to admit to at the moment.

"Why you all staring at me! It's really rude, you know! _hiccup_!"

"Because you are drunk, little man." Kanayan states calmly, lifting the Fata to eye level.

"I am not, you know!"_hiccup_ Lili spits out, unconvincingly defiant.

"It's just my great great great grandpappy GiGi's elderberry wine recipe, you know! My kin were throwing me a farewell party in a royal send-off to a faraway home where I'm lonely and unwanted, you know?" _sniffle hiccup hiccup_ Lili's absurd weepy words trail off and a slew of hiccoughing.

"No, this cannot be, Hiro! Intoxicated? Such a sweet little baby is?" Caterina exclaims in her best broken English for this time of night, as she looks sympathetically at the pitiful yellow and blue fairy. She rushes over from the coffee table where she and Tsuzuki Mari had been setting up a modest midnight sweets buffet for their sweeties and any soon-to-be returning stragglers of the Seiso entourage of students.

"Even '_a sweet little baby is_' possible, my pet." Imitating her thick Dutch accent, Kanazawa Hiroto teases his wife, the underlying  
self-deprecating meaning evident in his regretful eyes and now  
humorous smile as he remembers what it was like without her sober anchor to hold on to.

"Oh, my poor thing." Kanayan couldn't tell if his sainted Caterina was speaking about him and his past acquaintance with the bottle or the wasted yellow creature pinched between his forefinger and thumb, especially when the lead soprano pets and coos over both purloined pixie and the man's hand it was held in.

"Mar-Mar?" Sensing a gentle woman's empathetic touch, Lili's eyes flutter open slowly.

"I'm here, my_ kleintje_ (little one). You just rest your little head, Mar-Mar is here." The maternal instinct in the tall blonde woman was strong and growing palpably even more so as she tenderly strokes a tiny head after releasing her husband from charge of the 'wee little thing'. Sitting back down at the table and nuzzling Lili, who was happy to be in warm loving arms, Mari also takes pity on Lili, assisting Caterina in offering the tired 'sick baby' some plain water to whet his 'poor dry throat'.

"Argh." Kira throws his hands up in the air, though feeling somewhat relieved that Mari and Mrs. Kanazawa had taken the annoyance off his hands. After all, he had more questionable pressing matters to deal with than any inebriated imaginary friends.

_Like young love finding its wings to fly..._

* * *

"Lili! Where are you?!" The familiar high pitched voice of the young girl they all owed this impromptu vacation to, calls out anxiously and out of breath as she comes bounding into the parlor from the side entrance she and her beau had speedily been ushered in by the Archduke's faithful old butler who kindly stayed on for the special frequent guests and their spirited young friends.

"He's here, Hino-san." Mari smiles up to the worried faced girl who was once a disturbance to Mari's own high striving conducting skills to train as Conmiss. But time and tide had both come to prove to Mari Tsuzuki that Hino Kahoko had a gift—and it wasn't just a remarkable violin's special tone color. It was more the gift the sweet redhead gave to others through her music—the gift to find inside yourself a true heart that not only had the ability to play music, but music that had the ability to play within the heart's truth for the love of others.

"Oh, Lili! I was so worried! When he blinked away in such a condition I had no idea where he might end up, and we have to leave early in the morning, and I thought he was lost and we'd never see him again!" Kahoko doesn't stop for breath, although she and Tsukimori Len were both quite out of it already, from running most of the way back to the Villa.

She leaves her betrothed's slightly begrudging arm to go to kneel at Caterina Kanazawa's feet so she could be close to the absconded Fata and see that no harm had come to him since Lili suddenly vanished from the safety of Len's firm grasp.

"Lili will always come back, like a homing beacon, because of a vowed pledge made long ago to his benefactor. A pledge he has loyally kept with every descendant of the man who saved his life for their mutual belief in the betterment of the world through the power of classical music."

The usually quiet, subdued Tsuzuki Mari knowledgeably imparts, as now misty eyes travel over to where one of Lili's benefactor's descendents, Kira Akihiko, was sourly grimacing down at the weak yellow lump of trouble cooing contentedly to sleep in Caterina's motherly lap. Mari places her tender touch on the Fata's furrowed forehead, for the once cold woman had learned the meaning of what it was to be warm at last.

_Mari..._Kira muses to himself how breathtaking the raven haired beauty truly was as he reflectively takes in the scene, forgetting all of his other worries in her eyes as Caterina begins to softly lullaby the drowsy fairy in her lilting soprano strains.

"A pledge is a pledge, Tsuzuki Mari." In a whisper meeting her eyes, the muscles in Kira's face soften, almost to the point of being called a smile at the scene of an injured soul being nursed back to health by caring hearts. Hino Kahoko soon joins the nursing corps, sweetly offering Lili a bit of sweet frosting from her fingertip.

"We dumb fellows should take a lesson in humanity from these lovely ladies." Wrapping a firm arm around first Kira then Tsukimori's shoulders on either side of him, Kanazawa Hiroto, as a happily  
married man, considers himself the expert on the mystery of the female sex, though smart enough to be absolutely certain he himself would never fully understand everything the divine damsels did until the Hereafter.

"Indeed."

"Indeed."

"Pardon me."

"Pardon me."

The director and Tsukimori look to each other almost comically as they doubly give the same response and apology to that original identical response in unison. Kanayan guffaws to himself at how alike these two stoic, serious, and solemn cold fish really were.

_You'd think that cool as ice Tsukimori was your nephew more than that hot-blooded Kiriya Etou, Kira! Although... I remember once upon a time you were a lot like him. I recall how you and Miya were both so full of heck! So full of life, and hungry for it! Miya's boy has inherited that same get up and go. I've gotta hand it to him..._

Kanayan recalls the persistent teen's intense drive to take on life's ambitions with a vivacious quality Kanayan himself envied at his young age.

_I wonder how he's doing in his endeavors tonight..._

Kira must've been reading his best friend's mind, as his thoughts too go back to the final pair of his students—two of the youngest in fact, his nephew and Shouji Megumi—who were still unaccounted for at 1 AM in the Salzburg Austrian early morn.

One of the few privileged to the reason why, Kira was learning that love meant letting go sometimes as well as holding tight. And though his protective nature, due to a haunted past full of wrong  
decisions, longed to pick up his cell phone and call on the boy to check on his whereabouts, Kira knew he was to trust in Kiriya's own common sense and responsibility from now on, and starting tonight.

After all, if he knew anything about his nephew's undaunted nature, he and Shouji Megumi were soon to be—

"Excuse me, sir. May I speak with you?" Kira comes back to reality upon hearing a throat clearing from behind him in Tsukimori Len's refined voice.

"Speak." Kira succinctly orders, the niceties never his strong point before and probably never would be.

"Thank you, sir." Tsukimori bows his head, glancing with a small smile at where the three ladies and Kanayan were talking and laughing all at once at the exciting news Kahoko had obviously shared with them of their betrothal and impending marriage.

"Kahoko—Hino...san—and I have indeed become engaged." Tsukimori starts out a bit tentatively but his mouth quivers to a smile at the thought of his bride-to-be with pride.

"As I've already been informed this evening, it is unnecessary for you to ask for my permission, either. So you needn't bother." Kira says with is enigmatic rueful smirk at youthful romance in general, his talk with Etou earlier still ringing in his ears.

"Eh?" Tsukimori responds, cocking his head at the incomprehensible comment.

"Nothing. Please continue, Tsukimori-kun." Kira gives a rare smile to himself, though one eye was still trained out the front window all the while.

"I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much of an imposition, that is, sir, and if the principle of the request doesn't discredit your influential standing in the musical community or circumvent your—"

"Get to the point, already...please...Tsukimori-kun." Kira nearly growls in his gruff voice. The rich, well-educated young man's polite bantering was getting quite on his flustered nerves by now.

"Ahem, yes, of course, sir." Tsukimori apologetically regroups his words, eyes averting until they catch a glimpse of the dazzling redhead in the far corner, and his intent is steeled.

"I would ask you to speak to the Vienna Conservatory about my shortening a half-year's credits. And also, please kindly accept my transferral to your own SeisoAcademyMusicCollege back in Kanagawa, using those credits for the remainder of my term." Tsukimori says the quick worded tones with a respectful head bowed to his superior.

"Let me get this straight, Tsukimori-kun. You are planning to give up a promising music career's full doctorate degree from the incomparably qualified Vienna Conservatory for the Performing Arts so you can return to Japan just to be with your girlfriend?"Kira crosses his arms, giving Tsukimori a surprised glance.

"You are fully willing to give up that legendary school's European prestige and highly valued prowess to return to Seiso?" Kira asks incredulously, though knocking his own school, he was sure that Tsukimori Len, of all his Seiso graduates, had the most favored potential for the highest ranks of greatness in an illustrious musical future ahead.

Kira Akihiko stares back at Tsukimori Len with a critical eye.

"Yes, sir. Without a trace of regret, I am certain about this decision." Tsukimori says with an assured conviction rarely expressed about such important matters in one so young.

_Much like Kiriya, again. Hmph. Tomorrow's promise take their own future in their own hands, it seems..._

"I will speak on your behalf to the Vienna Conservatory, if you so desire, Tsukimori-kun. And Seiso will be gladly awaiting your return." Kira can't help but give an approving nod.

"Thank you, Director Ki—" Tsukimori begins to say, stopped mid-bow by a shrill voice contradicting him most adamantly.

"Wait! He doesn't wish it! Len, this concerns me now, too, so I believe I have a say in the matter. Don't I?!" At Kanayan's beckoning after overhearing the serious conversation, Hino Kahoko had appeared behind an unaware Tsukimori for some time now, silently listening to everything discussed.

Her heart was truly touched by his love to sacrifice so much just to be with a simple girl like her, but she was not a person selfish enough to indulge in his selfless offering.

"Of course, you have more than a say in everything I do. You are the very reason I live, Kahoko. These two years have engraved that fact upon my heart. I want to live for you, with you, beside you, from now on. A degree from a music college in Japan will be more than sufficient for me if it is sufficient for you. There we can be together at last. After all, it's your music that I'm chasing, not fame nor fortune. My dream isn't for prestige or success in a musical career anymore."

By now, Tsukimori's two hands that had been formerly clenched into determined fists, were squarely placed upon the girl's shoulders, he looking into her stunned eyes with the soft warmth of his true emotion.

"My dream is far more ambitious, far more important. My dream is to fulfill**your** dream to the best of my abilities. My dream is to love you with every second more of my life." Tsukimori's heartfelt profession into Kahoko's melting eyes as he then pulls her body to his chest in a tender embrace and subsequent sweet kiss is followed by an audible _'Awwwww...' _in the visual camera flash of eight girls' sighs combined into one deliriously impressed sentiment.

"Well, it's about time! Let's get a gander at that ring of hers." Amou Nami, Takatou Mio, Yunoki Miyabi, Sakimoto Mizue, Mori Manami, Fuyuumi Shoko, Takashina Ayano and Kobayashi Nao had quietly snuck into the parlor wearing various colored nightgowns, pajamas, and dressing robes. For all had worked and plotted and waited for this moment to happen for their friend from the start of this amazing adventure, and now all their endeavors had paid off at long last.

Amou had luckily come down to the kitchen for a warm glass of milk when her big investigative ears overheard that giggling and cooing of Mari and Caterina over Hino's exciting news. The reporter had taken to her slippered heels and dashed up the stairs, rousting out her mostly still daydreaming Girl Power sisters and dragging them all down to the parlor to witness the fruit of their two weeks' worth of labor.

"If your dream is to please my dream, Len, then you should have no objection to the wonderful plan Tsuzuki-san and Mrs. Kanazawa have been kind enough to help me map out." Seizing her opportunity that her Len was in a squishy state of mind, Hino squeezes hands with a nearby Tsuzuki Mari, cementing their friendship as she seriously gazes in Tsukimori's eyes.

She takes a deep breath.

"With Tsuzuki-san's private tutoring that she's offered to help me with everyday after class, and Mrs. Kanazawa's close friendship pulling some strings with the Vienna Conservatory's music director, they believe I'll be accepted into the Conservatory as a transfer student to finish the remainder of my courses from Ferris, owing that my college has an affiliation to the Vienna Education Center. You could still finish your full-term at the Conservatory and we will be together, here in Vienna, the city where both our dreams come true."

Kahoko says that mouthful without a pause, so excited was she to tell her love of her wondrous idea that Tsukimori's eyes widen at each of her swift sentences as he slowly digests them.

Feeling their hero and heroine's tale a bit out of the 'Gift of the Magi" Christmas story's romantically selfless moral of dual sacrifice in the name of love, their audience of girls, Kanayan and wife, and Kira, were soon joined by Ousaki Shinobu, who instinctively shows up after going to fetch his Nami's extra digicam memory card and spare camera. She accepts them swiftly and goes into action to snap a quick shot of the engaged couple's loving embrace.

"So...what do you think?" Kahoko anxiously awaits her love's assessment of her new plan, the entire audience waiting in silent baited breath (except for the snoring of one loud Fata still snoozing on Caterina's warm lap) for his much awaited answer.

After a long pause in some everlasting moments of seriously staring into his Kahoko's eyes, Tsukimori Len breaks into a deep smile.

"I think—" He pauses dramatically, looking deep into her eyes.

"Your wish is my command... my Darling...For you, I would walk through fire." Len says in his huskiest voice.

"Because the music your soul plays to mine, with infinite love that has made everything in my world possible."

Tears on the verge of streaming down fill in the pools of Kahoko's eyes, brimming over with love and pride intermingled at his heartfelt words spoken directly to her soul.

"I'm only me because of the gifts you've graced me with. I could not love you more—for you are the other half of me, Kahoko."

"Because you are the Light of my eyes..." And with that, a round of applause explodes from her friends and dear ones as Kahoko finds herself wrapped into the safe harbor of his loving arms with unashamed sentimentality, topping off the most wonderful night of them all with an awe inspiring kiss.


	67. Chapter 67 - A Flurrious Situation

**Chapter 67: "A Flurrious Situation"  
**

As the distinct sound of mingled bells and hooves draws even closer, the cooing girls were busy taking photos of the happy couple they helped bring together at last, all the while ooh-ing over Hino Kahoko's propitious engagement to hunky Tsukimori Len, who manfully allows the flock of females to practically manhandle him mercilessly as they prance about him in admiration.

None of them paid notice to Kira Akihiko's quickened silent departure from the parlor until the ever observant on-the-scene reporter catches some whispered looks and surreptitious words passing between Tsuzuki Mari, Kanazawa Hiroto and his wife Caterina that intrigued Amou Nami. And when Amou is 'intrigued,' she turns into extremely, undeniably, in-your-face nosy mode.

"So what's all this late-night secretiveness, Kanayan? I can tell when a mystery's afoot! So don't try to hide it from me!" Amou leaves the celebratory scene of the newly engaged couple in a dash of speeding legs and magically whipped out notepad. She drags her unbeknownst  
"assistant" behind her with the camera strap he was dutifully still holding, poor Ousaki Shinobu's back soon acting as his girl Friday's spontaneous movable writing blotter, with all her investigative gear piled in his helpful saddled arms.

"Who's hiding anything? You hiding anything, Cat? At least anything, within reason —ahem— you'd care for the kids to hear just now?" Kanayan's somewhat gamey yet goofy attempt at withholding information was worth a laugh from his wife.

Caterina merely smiles in fluttering eyelids innocence as she continues to stroke Lili's head. She hands him to Mari who lays the snoozing creature on a bed of soft pillows and cushions like a precious package, tucking Lili in with care.

"Who can say?" Caterina answers teasingly as she takes her place beside her hubby, a glint of her own feminine curiosity gleaming in her eyes as she too glances through the same doorway until they rest conspiratorially again with Kanayan.

"Tsuzuki-san?" Amou immediately turns her attentions from the cunning older couple to focus on the taken off guard weaker link.

Tsuzuki Mari looks up with a shocked expression from where she was quietly tucking in the sleeping fairy on a lovingly made bed of soft velvet cushions and covering of the shawl taken from her own warm shoulders.

"... Akihiko-san—I—uh—the **Director—**may not wish to be disturbed until—" Mari, who was usually a cool cold fish, seems to lose all her prim composure when she had Kira Akihiko on the brain as much as she obviously did now.

"Akihiko-san, is it?" Amou smirks mischievously at Mari's familiar name for the dignified director of their school, heard now for the second time this fine evening.

"Should've known he'd be at the bottom of this, that sly old fox!" With a tug of her supply bag strap, which was still attached around Ousaki Shinobu's choking neck, Amou, with her obedient, slightly colicked, 'doggy' not far behind, takes to their heels and follows the line of Mari's vision as the Seiso OG's guilty eyes point the ace investigator towards the hallway running towards Casa Austria's front entrance foyer.

"Please wait! Oh dear, I've said too much." Mari bites her lower lip, praying her looseness of tongue wouldn't anger her dark eyed director, should he have preferred to greet the late arrivals on his own terms. Mari quickly finishes covering Lili in his makeshift porcelain bed and goes trotting after the quick paced golden girl and her eager bedraggled assistant who was trying his best to race around and still hold her bags and himself together yieldingly.

But gazing upon him, Mari finds that trailing Ousaki Shinobu no longer interested her at all. She was absolutely certain that he and Amou Nami made quite a cute couple as the older acquiescent man is summarily dragged in the determined girl's wake.

"What's up with that, Kanayan?" Motioning with his thumb at the scurrying scene, the low voice of a T-shirt wearing Fudou Shoma rudely interrupts, as his more cultured older brother in silk pajamas and night robe jabs him squarely in the ribs for not giving the older former teacher some well-deserved respect.

Just then, Hihara Kazuki, discouraged by a pair of similarly be-robed, thirsty throated from civilly arguing politics cousins right behind him, Kaji and Yunoki, join in the growing group in search of a midnight snack. Hihara does not wait for an invitation to pluck up a handful of cookies and stuff them in his hungry mouth, Shoma joining in on unceremoniously filching the crunchy munchies from the plentiful tray—boys and midnight snack food going hand-in-hand.

Yosuke exchanges an apologetic nod with Kanayan and a smiling, shaking head with Tsuchiura Ryotaro, who, too, had wandered into the kitchen from a sound sleep to see what all the ruckus was about.

"Who can say?" Kanayan teasingly mimics Caterina's snobbish words from earlier, though Shimizu Keiichi, found wandering dangerously down the stairs in his yellow pajamas with an eyemask half covering his face by Tsuchiura's luckily watchful protective arm, didn't quite get the gist of the phrase, as per angel-boy usual.

"You could say, please." In his yawning drawl, Shimizu, eyelids sleepier than sleepy, appears to open them wide enough for a few  
moments to gaze across the room to his Fuyuumi, who shyly blushes and hugs herself with a tentative smile back at him in her sweet frilly night wraps amidst the gaggle of girls surrounding the effusively happy Hino Kahoko and a pitiably restless Tsukimori Len caught in the middle of the maelstrom.

"Aw, heck! That Amou's about to blow the lid off this anyway...Enough of this pussyfooting around! Come on kids! Let's see what the cat's dragged in. No offense, my love." With a  
devious wink at his own "Cat," Kanayan can't help the teacher in him from taking the role on again enthusiastically. With a raised hand, he herds his curious "class" of some bashful, some brash, some still half-asleep nightgowned and pajama clad couples who nonetheless march warm hand in hand or leaning arm in arm from the parlor in search of unlocking tonight's final mystery.

Mio giggles uncontrollably as Shoma suddenly grabs her hand and leads her racing from the room; Miyabi appears just in time to catch half a falling cookie from Kazuki's overfilled and overjoyed mouth as they jog out to where Kanayan indicated; Manami graciously accepts Aoi's flourished bow, linking her arm in the crook of his; Yosuke's flirtatious arm snakes around Nao's thin shirted waist, the wandering hand of which gets properly slapped; Azuma gives Ayano a lordly demanding raised eyebrow look, as she pleasingly surprises him by reaching up and smoothing it away unexpectedly, changing his bored mouth to an interested smirk with a quick peck to his amused cheek; Tsukimori proudly offers Kahoko his extended arm like a true gentleman, as she feels this side of heaven to be enraptured by his pervasive scent, nearly swooning as she accepts her Len's proffered silken appendage; Ryo glares in Mr. Perfect's adored wake, but Mizue knew how to get his attention back to herself with a resounding smack directly on his tight tush.

_SLAP!_

"Get a move on, Big Boy! You got a problem with something?" She puts her hands on her hips, looking up to him with an expectant twisted pursed lip.

"Yes ma'am! I mean no, ma'am... Mizue." Tsuchiura stammers, feeling utterly stupid. He laughs at himself as his nurse leads him away by the ear, they nearly the last couple left in the sitting room to tromp out to the front foyer, leaving in the kitchen..

Fuyuumi was, as always, patiently waiting for Shimizu, who was taking his own time retrieving yet another chocolate morsel treat of the batch Hihara and Shoma found in the kitchen that had slipped from his hungrily greedy hand and had nearly crowned the peacefully slumbering fairy dozing in the makeshift pillowed gravy boat sitting on the coffee table.

"Heh heh heh. That cookie looks like you, Lili. I wish I had a bed like yours, it looks warm and yummy."

_YAWN "_Goodnight from me, Shoko." Shimizu sweetly sings in lullaby tones with a big yawn, hoping for his own sleepy repose, his chin complacently landing on his fudge covered cookie cutout until Fuyuumi gets up enough courage to come over, dab her innocently asleep smiling boy's chocolatey mouth with a tender napkin, and then physically pull him up with the strength she didn't know she had by his sticky hand to join the others' mass exodus to the foyer. Like gelatin or putty easily formed, Shimizu fortunately complies to her wishes in his pleasantly slow-motion manner, the smile ever present on his face as he leans over, half-asleep, and plants a chocolatey kiss on her blushing cheek beneath the window in the parlor's moonlight.

That left only Lili and his fairy shaped cookie lookalike in the empty room, the drunken sprite tossing and turning in his delirious sleep until he knocks the sugary confection to the floor, its frosted wings crumbling off in protest in exaggerated broken likeness of the slumbering inebriate.

* * *

Shimizu and Fuyuumi had gotten there just in time to watch the pensive Director of Seiso Academy impatiently fling open the Villa's front door, yet mustering the dignity to calmly compose himself to meet the arrival of the last two of his returning students from whatever adventures this rapidly unfolding romantic night had to offer them.

Twenty-one pairs of eyes, some in disbelief of what others had rumored, some still awestruck by the sheer romance of the affair, quietly peer behind him, through the open door or nearby window box to take in the breathtaking view greeting their curiosity

"Shameless scene stealer. Owwy! For having little paws, Pata2, you sure can squeeze!" Shoma mutters under his breath as Mio nearly cuts off the circulation by clutching his arm too tightly in anticipation as if watching a thrilling epic motion picture.

"Shush, Little Brother!" Yosuke admonishes his younger sibling who had not a romantic bone in his entire body. Nao was grateful for him to take the boy down a peg as she permits a bit of the night's romance to allow Yosuke's warm hands some freedom of their own around her unfettered at last.

* * *

The golden bells on the braided harnesses lightly tinkle as the noble steeds stamp their hooved legs, as if they knew their night's endeavor was complete as their well-groomed maned heads toss back a farewell whinny to the dashing young man and his lady fair that the horses had played their vital part in making the fairytale dream reality for.

As Etou Kiriya alights from the carriage door Kira himself had opened in place of a footman, the two men's eyes merge-one in hope, one in compassion-as a silent understanding passes between unasked questions and unsaid answers. Etou and his uncle never felt closer than this moment as they share a robust handshake.

_This is the path we'll walk together, my share of the legacy of all the pride she would've had for you. _

_Thanks for letting me choose my own way._

_As you've inherited so many of her gifts...Kiriya—music, passion, beauty... her yearning for true love too..._

_I can see now why she cared for you so much...Akihiko-san... I knew you wouldn't let me down either._

_You've given me this second chance, Miya. I'll do it right this time. I'll be there for your boy...for them both...'til we meet again..._

The deep thoughts that criss-crossed between the two men need never be spoken, for insight was Divine.

"Thanks, Akihiko-san." Etou's confident voice never wavers, nor does his solid gaze as those simple words express all his heart needed to say to the only family he had left in this world.

"Just a matter of pulling a few strings, Kiriya."

"Violin strings? Heh heh heh." Etou's eyes betrayed his deep satisfaction as he raises his arms casually comfortable over his head.

Kira joins his nephew's crooked smile with a tight lipped one of his own. Though at first suspicious as he glances about himself, the dark man feels strangely amused by the sparkles of light that begin to glow against the dark night sky when Shouji Megumi's unnaturally pale cheek, save for the pinkish traces of indescribable warmth emanating from within, emerges from the impressive carriage.

Her trembling hand is firmly steadied as Etou chivalrously escorts his new fiancée down the ivory and golden steps of the horse drawn carriage that had taken them both to the new dream that came true for them in this land of pure beauty.

"Shouji-kun." Kira looks seriously upon the small girl's frightened eyes, his glance traveling to where a very familiar SeisoAcademy ruby ring was adorning her left-hand ring finger. The ring that once belonged to his beloved sister was now hers to hold.

"Congratulations." Kira smiles again as he once did then, reaching out and surprising even himself by taking the free hand of the nervous young girl that was about to bite a shy knuckle unknowingly, he shocking both Shouji and himself by pressing it and the precious ring softly to reverent lips.

Blinking up at the believed cold as ice Director with tears of joy  
biting behind her blue eyes, a red-faced Shouji returns her brightest smile of glowing gratitude even as the embarrassed by his own foolishness older man briskly nods and swivels on his heel, he hastily striding towards the stables behind the retiring hansom carriage, as if purposely meaning to speak to the driver or stable hands about their bestowed favor.

"Kiriya?" Megumi looks to her love anxiously, wondering if she did something wrong, wanting approval from albeit the scary relation very very much but uncertain of what to make of his behavior just now.

"It's all good."_ I didn't expect you to go that extra mile. But Megumi needed that. Thanks, Akihiko-san._

Shouji's doubt is eased and enveloped by Etou's confident grin on his pretty face as laughing eyes follow Kira's emotional retreat, he wise to his uncle quite well by now. Kiriya wraps a strong arm around her shoulders reassuringly.

With the relieved giggles shared in his secure eyes, Shouji felt that after facing Kira Akihiko himself, with her Kiriya's arm about her no longer trembling shoulders, her cut short breath as strong and sure as she ever has felt it—

-tonight, she could face anything!

Even if it meant a villa full of inquisitive disbelieving faces peeking out in confused wonder of what the two of them were up to, hand in hand, arm in arm, all aglow, flushed in late night excitement, a horse drawn gold-gilt carriage with all its bells and whistles, and to top it off, a warm, caring and welcoming Seiso Director making a wild-eyed run towards the barn. Shouji inhales in a big breath.

"Come on, Megumi! Never mind them! Just say to yourself: 'I can make it!'—and you can do anything!" He whispers in her ear, sharing the secret code of his life's magic of inner self-possession with her.

"Now, let's go wow them! And look good doing it too!" In an almost giddy mood by now, after a quick scan up and down of **his** young lady with slightly rakish eyes and approving smirk, Etou Kiriya's long legs and athletic build leads a blissful Shouji bounding towards the entrance.

She loved his attitude in taking on the world and laughing at it, just as his beautiful notes play with the same utter confidence that timid and quiet Megumi always longed for all her life. With him, the shy eyed young woman's heart felt brave and bold, her breath strong in her chest for once in her youthful life with his sure wiry hand holding hers tight—for there was nothing she would fear anymore in this perfect world where flawless Etou Kiriya loved her so.

As the two radiant youths, ready to embrace a new course in life together, vibrantly race up the steps of the Archduke's Austrian Casa to greet all their jaw-dropped friends waiting inside, the sweet music of their jubilant laughter, intermingled like their accompanied music, fills the night air as they fly through the open front door as energetically as Etou promised her to go through the rest of their life together, achieving total victory and perfection in everything — especially their young love, in precious days that will never end...


	68. Chapter 68 - Words

**Chapter 68: "Words"**

_S__o deep is the night..._

It was very late by the time the excitement subsided of the resplendent horse and carriage arrival adventure of their last evening abroad that concluded in the group's youngest couple's engagement. In fact, emotional attachments that resulted in engagement seemed to be in fashion this night. Yunoki Azuma had finally set an actual wedding date with his longtime betrothed, Ayano, as well. And those two proposals were just side effect consequences to the main reason they were all here.

Every one of the Girl Power group considered this a completely successful journey, all in all. For not only had they reunited Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko in their mutual love, but the two had decided to finally tie the knot to put the icing on the (wedding) cake.

_Whoa...But they're all just kids still. Etou's only what? Sixteen?! I'm ready for anything now...They're dropping like flies to this all-consuming temptation of marital bliss. Who's next? __Shimizu__ and Fuyuumi?! Ha!_

Kanazawa Hiroto thinks to himself incredulously with a smirk at the mere idea, shaking his over-imaginative head that the boy-angel had any inkling of normal male behavior.

_Or maybe on a more serious note—Tsuchiura and that dreamy Sakimoto girl? Maybe even Mr Popularity Kaji and Mori? Can Amou be nailed down by Ousaki at last? _

_Good luck to poor Kobayashi in snagging that French fried Fudou guy, though. That's a long shot. His kid brother who thinks he's a rock star and cutie Takatou are a more likely match! _

_Guess Hihara'll have to wait awhile for Yunoki's little sister to come of age. _

Kanayan considers all of these 'blooming' young couples, turning each one over and over in his mind.

_Or hey! Best of all—how about you, Kira? With that stuck-up Tsuzuki Mari...There's a shocker. _

That final unpredictable attachment knocked Kanayan fully awake by now. He was unable to sleep for some time, with all the various excitement and thoughts of his 'kids' and their romantic notions of growing up and moving on in life and relationships that made Kanazawa Hiroto a tad too sentimental.

_I guess I wasn't much older when I first tried for you though, Cat..._

Perhaps it was also the knowledge that his 'kids' still needed his guidance, his friendship—not to mention his chicken soup! And growing up or not, they were still his 'kids'—and tomorrow they were leaving him again.

It wasn't until they all came to Vienna, when he saw each one of them filled with all their joys and heartaches, problems and plans, sicknesses and energy, that he realized just how darn much he had missed them all.

_Damn it! I didn't know how much I missed being needed by those rascals. If I only had the words to tell them how I feel..._

Kanayan never once regretted his new life that had been given back to him by the strength alone of his Caterina's enduring love. She had sought him out, begged for forgiveness of her cruel past wrongs and wooed him into believing in love again. The future took wing from there and a new career together took off. Their mutual love of singing opera and performing on the stage revived in him a spark that he thought had long gone out, as his lady's unyielding love returned stoked the flame.

And yet—right now, his heart was feeling a small little tear being tugged apart again by unwanted separation from his 'kids.' They were the only family he had known for a time—their smiling faces had pulled him through all those long, hard, empty years without her, without his queen—until she reclaimed him with her love again.

Feeling that rip in his heart quite palpably tonight, Kanayan, as quietly as possible, leaves the bed that held no sleep for his restless soul. He needed some fresh air, as he slips on his nightrobe to walk out onto the attached balcony terrace, gracing the suite of rooms that he and Cat always had the privilege of stopping in as frequent honored guests of the Archduke and Duchess.

It was a mild night for this time of year in Salzburg, yet the cool winds were still almost bitter at this early morning hour. But Kanazawa Hiroto was no stranger to harsh winds, enduring more than a few in his checkered past, when he was alone with whichever bottle of liquor found its way into his distraught hand. All for the woman who walked out on him whom he couldn't let go, the one his tortured mind kept homing back to.

But since then, his life had made a turn for the better, decidedly. Thanks mostly, if not entirely, to the devotion of a single friend. Kanayan knew how very much he owed to Kira Akihiko's dogged fortitude (aka stubborn imperturbability) to lift his 'senpai' up by the bootstraps, even amidst his own bout with sad circumstances of loss and grief.

_Yup, Kira...you held out a lifeline to me, until I was on my feet again—when I thought no one else cared...And those kids you entrusted me with, hefted me out of that dark hole, up that rope until I came up the rest of the way. It was a second chance at life that you gave me back, the chance to find out if the remainder of my heart still existed... _

_And yup, I did find it— and this fool heart of mine still held onto the love, even after all these years..._

Kanayan's reminiscent mind floats back through to the memory of the exact moment Caterina Van Etten trilled her angel notes back into his life. How his heart had soared at the sound of her voice, even over the thin speaker of the telephone. How his chest rose and fell in bitter  
anger, then hope, then fear mixed with the desire to live life again as a whole man.

Visions of himself boarding a plane to take him back to Italy cross his mind's eye. Back into the opera world where he and his love first met and where the two would meet and love again, the years of lonely division shrinking away as swiftly as a clock loses time.

_Good fortune brought you back to me,my beautiful princess..._

Lost in his own silent path down memory's lovers' lane after his love had walked right back in his life's intersection, Kanayan, too, loses track of the time. He didn't realize how long his reflective breath of fresh air had kept him staring out into the snowflake spattered, cast over night turned morn, until he hears a faint calling to his vaguely wandering mind, in a voice so precious to his heart.

"Hiro...? Hiro? Hiro? Where are you, my love?" A touch of alarm in it, Caterina Kanazawa's velvety tones were just as soft and creamy as the pair of cooing doves that unexpectedly land on the balcony ledge, so close to Kanayan he could almost touch their plumes of pale feathers as the moon makes its final descent below the horizon.

"I'm right here, pet. Sorry if I woke you." Kanayan swiftly returns to her bedside, removing his dressing robe and apologizing to his pet 'Cat' as he returns to their bedside and kisses her sleepy brow, petting its worry lines away.

"You didn't wake me—I only felt you weren't there, and that frightened me again." She whispers a bit incoherently as he sits down, close to the sleepy woman. She hugs his arm to her chest until her bed-warmed fingers feel his cold-as-ice ones through the sheets. "Ooh! So cold! How long have you been out there, Hiro?" She asks, quite awake now, her brow furrowing again in sweet wrinkles.

"Who can say?" He chuckles as he quips at her their running Shimizu inspired joke. She playfully swats his thigh in punishment and he realizes how wonderful it was to be able to laugh again, in a way only she could make him—the way only she could heal him.

"'_You can, please._' I love that child—he is so honest!" Caterina giggles at the recollection of Shimizu Keiichi's oblivious forms of speech.

"Brutally." Kanayan remembers how many times it took before Shimizu got his own teacher's name right. Or did he ever get it? "Hmmm..." Kanayan reconsiders the question, turning that one over in his mind as well.

"You are so pretty when you do that, Hiro." Caterina places a hand on her husband's thoughtful pose of hand under reflective chin—reminiscent to her of the famed Greek statue of Apollo.

"Thank you, ma'am. But you're not supposed to call a man 'pretty,' Cat." He says indignantly, swiping her admiring hand away.

"And why not, if it's true?" She wheedles, petting the stray locks of his lovely lavender hair.

"Aww, Cat, it's just not the right word in this day and age for a man!" Kanayan blushes modestly as his wife taps his tall, straight nose with high regard, and studies his crooked playful mouth, making approving noises in her melodic throat.

"What are you up to now, silly woman?" With a chortle, he pulls back, as she continues to caress his face and slightly stubbly chin, as if assessing its shape and length and depth for research.

"Admiring your sparkling eyes as you speak, my love." She replies, indeed soul searching his golden irises.

"And why would you be doing that? It's not like they've moved around on my mug today, have they?" His 'pretty' mouth makes a quite unbecoming twist, as his 'unmovable' eyes cross peevishly at her early morning foolishness.

"Nooo,_ de liefde_. (my love)" Caterina continues to smile enigmatically up at him, as she smooths his cute, pouty mouth and pats his eyelids gently shut, deciding that maybe this was just the right moment at last. There was something longing in her beloved's eyes that maybe this knowledge would fill...if only she had the right words...

"I'm only wondering...which of your pretty features our baby's face will have." Cat lets the proverbial cat out of the bag, just as Kanayan was about to rebut with yet another sassy remark, when it occurs to him just exactly what she was saying.

"—Our...b-baby?" The man leans down closer to her smiling lips to make sure he heard her correctly, his eyes wide.

"Our_ kindje_ (baby), Hiro. I'm sure will have a beautiful voice like yours. But I want him to look exactly like you." Again Caterina pets the palm of her hand over every feature of his shocked face.

"Whoa, Cat, are you joking me?" Kanayan cries out, grabbing her shoulders, shaking them fiercely, then quickly removing his hands gingerly with alacrity, as if afraid of shattering a fragile, porcelain doll in his clumsy grasp.

He stares at her in disbelief as he runs his fingers nervously through his unruly bangs. Caterina's sincerely solemn smiling head nodding up and down results in an outburst of exclamation from her husband.

"Me?! A daddy?!" His eyes gazing down at her were wild—both elated and unsure simultaneously.

"Yes, my love. Of course, if she's a girl, she'd probably look and sound more like me, though I wouldn't mind either if she looked like you. You would probably make a very lovely girl, with the right makeup." Caterina's attempts at humor were in vain though, for her husband was in another world already.

She squeezes his wringing hands in hers, and laughs, sitting up, excited at last to share with him the news he was the primary cause thereof.

"But what kind of father will a lunkhead like me make, Cat?" Kanayan bops his own spinning head in wonder.

"A wonderful one! Ask any one of your 'kids.' They'll all tell you—you will be the best _Vader _(Father)." She proudly teases in her thick Dutch accent, lovingly rubbing the poor noggin his fist had punished unnecessarily.

"My kids? ...Oh, Cat, I love you." His heart begins to sing arias, as, carefully as holding a newborn kitten, Kanayan wraps his lady tenderly up in a loving embrace, grateful at how she had always acknowledged and encouraged his unending role as teacher — and patriarch — of the the Seiso gang. And now she was giving his saddened heart a second chance yet again—the chance as a real father—to once again take on the role of teacher, which he had unexpectedly grown to love.

This was the performance that would fill every hole in his heart for the rest of their lives as they hug one another tightly, each ready to enter this new realm of their love's expression together.

_"Ik hou van jou..." _(I love you) Caterina whispers the eternal melody, petting her husband's stubbly chin adoringly as he leans into her palm, tugging at her red sash that reminded him of unwrapping a present.

The greatest present he would ever receive.

Both sit back on the bed and watch the rising sun paint the landscape with indescribable hues that only God's palette could create. And as the loving couple open their eyes, that rising sun was welcoming them with a fresh new warmth, in the blessed knowledge that they two would someday soon be three.

The radiant glow of tomorrow's promise streams through the open window, as that same promise grows within Caterina, and they, contented in each other's embrace, watch the dazzling scenery fill the sky at daybreak. Kanazawa Hiroto lies back down beside his sleepy wife, his operatic voice softly humming 'O Mio Babbino Caro' to his 'Cateri' until she falls back asleep on his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeats that he prayed wouldn't awaken her.

For the thundering thumping beat in his heart, rose with each new thought, new dream, new hope—for the precious little gift of enchantment slowly coming to life inside his wife, the magic being who would someday find a wide, wondrous world awaiting—full of love, music and second chances.

These blessings were blowing upon the winds that carried Kanayan's peacefully satisfied mind away from this earth and up, up into Heaven's everlasting heartbeat. With all his fervent thoughts and soulful, poignant feelings of gratitude for this chance, awakening to be born through their undying love in this miracle called 'Life', there were truly no human Words...


	69. Chapter 69 - StuffThatDreams Are Made Of

**Chapter 69: "The Stuff Dreams are Made of"**

A day could not have dawned any more perfectly than today. Beautiful blue sky, gorgeous soft breezy temperatures, sun shining brightly, without a single cloud to mar the vista. A blissful Hino Kahoko gazes from the clear window of the magnificent horsedrawn gold and ivory carriage. Upon its regal reins, a quartet of pure white Arabian steeds prance, red plumes flying high in rhythmic time as Kahoko watches with nothing less than unmitigated joy.

She looks down for the hundredth time to check and recheck her long flowing dress for creases, and was gratified to find none amongst the ample white satin and chiffon sparkling folds that reflected the felicitous glimmers of her eyes.

This was her moment. It was truly here at last!

Her gown was beyond stunning, her red hair had been done up in a flattering classy, yet chic bun encrusted with genuine Austrian cut glass Swarovski crystal beads strung amidst the crimson strands most artfully. Between artistic designer Ayano-chan, stylish fashion plate Caterina-okusan, and elegantly tasteful Tsuzuki-san (who was surprisingly deft at hairstyling coiffures), Kahoko was resplendent and refined in a sumptuous gown, skillfully arrayed with all the exquisite trappings.

She steps from the carriage lightly as if walking on air itself, feeling inside as ravishingly sublime as she looked outside. Her deep red hair had some vibrant escapee wisps blown to her forehead on the soft breeze that greeted her arrival.

Kahoko accepts the kind-eyed gentleman's sturdy arm as he gently assists her to find her high-heeled feet somewhere beneath the yards and yards of filmy organza and silky satins.

Her Otosan surveys his youngest daughter with a loving pride only a father could fully comprehend on such an important day in her life, as he silently leads his little girl on their special walk through the Church chapel's doors.

The cathedral was indeed impressive, as decked out with a bowery of blue and white flora, where the pervading sweet smell of hyacinth, jasmine and freesia mingle to fill her lungs as she drinks every sight and scent in eagerly.

_Don't forget to add sound to that list as well_, Kaho thinks, as Mendelssohn's enduring melody of "The Wedding March" begins to play.

_And not just any Wedding March_. An extra smile comes to Kaho's lips with the subconscious knowledge that those glorious strains of music were provided by an ensemble of her closest dearest friends forming their own special orchestra for this auspicious occasion.

Who could she possibly wish to usher in their marriage ceremony other than these most talented musicians? How could she ever want for more than Etou-kun's soaring strings taking the lead melody to perfection with Ousaki-senpai's tender violin as his capable second; Kaji-kun's heartwarming viola and Shimizu-kun's heavenly cello wrapping up their string quartet rather cohesively in consummate unity; Hihara-senpai's boisterous instrument trumpeting his happy  
presence, backed up by little Miyabi-chan's first public performance on her newfound golden brass; Yunoki-senpai's luxuriant flute extolling their graces elegantly with Fuyuumi-chan's docile clarinet harmonizing sweetly; as Mori-san and Megu-chan's accomplished  
organ and well-trained piano keys play in proficient tandem. And finally, Shoma's classical guitar strikes some satisfying chords as he adds a fresh boldness to the overall stellar performance whilst Kanayan and his lady wife patiently wait in the wings for their  
operatic serenade for the happy couple's recessional from the church.

_Doo doo da doo _

_Doo doo da doo..._

Everything was utterly flawless to Kaho's beaming delight. Her gaze surveys friend's and family's happy hopeful faces in pews seated on either side as she passes down the aisle on her father's arm, sweeping over to the optimistic thumbs-ups gestured by each of her lovely 'Girl Power' bridesmaids, attired in pastel colors of spring flowered frocks, as they take their places from the bridal procession on either side of the church's bountifully flora filled sides where Fudou-sensei was  
taking pictures and signals from the ace reporter who was doubling as a bridesmaid. Although most of his attention (and a great deal of Amou's camera footage, which she reluctantly lent the young teacher with a discerning artist's eye her beloved Aibou, but only after he swore to treat 'her' with utmost gentility._ Bien sûr (Of course)! I always am kind to the ladies. It'll be the ruin of me_. ^_^) focused on a certain charcoal-bobbed damsel draped in light earthy tans the same color as her boyfriend's mane of hair, two bridesmaids in front of a somewhat frazzled, yet pretty in pink Nami-san.

Taking the bridesmaid's procession lead, Nao confidently strides down the aisle, doing her best to ignore the incessant camera flashes accompanied by attentive flattering smiles from the amateur photographer behind it. Pale navy blue frocked Mio fails to suppress a giggle, looking up and behind to the orchestra when her share of Fudou audacity coming her way results in Sho-chan strumming (especially loudly, to be heard above the din) his energetic guitar strings in salute to her big moment in the spotlight.

Both girls catch the bride-to-be's delirious eyes upon each of them as they turn and nod and wave two beaming smiles of encouraging pride to their dearest friend as they round the center aisle to take their spots on the side of the beautifully decorated church.

In the procession behind a regained decorum Nami-san walks Ayano-chan, delicate, yet stately and regal simultaneously in a dusky indigo-violet world all her own, lost in her Azuma-sama's flute's highest notes he reached for her alone now. With Ayano-chan's helpful advice and insight in such fashionable matters, Kaho had designed a rainbow pastel matching set for all nine of her ladies in waiting.

Attired in light aquas Manami-san, then lemon Shoko-chan, then melon Miyabi-chan, and finally rose Megu-chan scramble from their instruments in a timely fashion to join the troupe of ecstatic females.

The girls complete the resplendent bridesmaid walk down the chapel aisle, at long last achieving this important day's culmination of their efforts, cherished hopes and well wishes for their beloved sister.

And for Kahoko, the most perfect part of this fairytale wedding was still awaiting her at the very front of the center aisle.

That was where a stunningly handsome blue prince was anticipating her arrival at the altar, with a friendly smirking Tsuchiura Ryotaro standing as best man at his side.

From Tsukimori Len's dapper creamy tuxedo and tails, to the cravat tie that was unaffectedly refined at his dignified neck, to Len's alluring eyes that expressed all the love for her in one adoring gaze, the devastatingly debonair groom was every girl's fantasy and more.

Kaho's father, with a final paternal squeeze of her arm, offers his daughter's extended hand to the young man to whom he was entrusting with his little girl's future happiness.

Kahoko peers a shy smile up at her dashing Len from beneath her chiffon veil that he solemnly lifts from her eyes as she takes her place at his side before the holy altar, where their eternal promise to one another would be sanctified at long last.

Kaho still could not believe her good fortune to have met her Len—not merely good fortune, but a miracle, passed between the measures of music that transposed her heart's notes to harmonize with his violin's perfect melody.

Through the power of music that has rein over hearts, Kaho realizes how many precious people she had been privileged to encounter, make lasting friendships with and grow to love in venues she never would have known, but for the sweet expression music had released throughout her soul.

Her beloved Girl Power group who had many hands in making this day possible, had collectively decided that, although each and every one of them would jump at the propitious chance to be Kaho's 'special sister' at a wedding that comes but once in a fortunate lifetime, the much sought after position should rightly fall to Mizue, considering the fact that Len had undauntedly tapped Ryotaro for the choice corresponding male role.

So there, at long last, stands Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko at the church altar with best man Tsuchiura and maid of honor Mizue at each of the betrothed's left and right hand sides.

Both Len and Kaho's families, dear friends, old and new, Seiso alumni, led by dashingly dark Director Kira with Tsuzuki-san at his side - literally the entire chapel was anxiously abuzz with the excitement of the cherished moment when nuptial bliss would fulfill the promise of eternity in the eyes of their Creator...

"Friends. We are gathered here today, to join together in the sight of God, this man and this woman in the sacred sacrament of holy matrimony." The priest begins to speak the immortal words of the humanly pact between the Deity and two of His children who have found a love greater than themselves in one another—as Len and Kahoko have.

Kaho's senses soar with each following phrase. Though rehearsed, the utterance of that speech was still thrilling to her euphoric gleeful mind as any expectant bride on her wedding day could happily attest to.

She clutches her pretty pink spray of roses, baby's breath and other varied frothy flora in her hot lacy gloved hands more tightly, as the clergyman addresses first Len, then Kahoko with the most hallowed question either of them would ever hear in this world.

"Do you, Tsukimori Len, take this woman, Hino Kahoko, to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do you part?"

Kahoko's already shallow breath is seized in her quickly restricting throat as time stands still for this momentous moment she's waiting forever patiently for to happen! To actually hear her beloved Len's feathery tones solemnly promise his pledge to her, his covenant of their Violin Romance with her to play its magical melody throughout a lifetime, spent together in utter love...

"I do." His exquisite eyes confidently affirm his reply, as they reach out to engage hers with truthful regard.

Entranced by his enthralling smile, Kahoko feels her swelling heart about to explode, tears of pure joy threatening to fall, only abated by her unparalleled exhilaration.

"And do you, Hino Kahoko, take this man, Tsukimori Len, to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do you -"

_Crackle! Bang! Bang! Crackle..._

Before the Reverend has a chance to finish his important sacramental query, Hino spins around on her heel to see what terrible natural disaster had befallen the church and **_dare_** to disturb **_her_**reply to **_the_**most prized minute of **her** life!

From the confused look on Mizue's face, to the concerned one on Len's, the redhead glances about the beautiful scene of her grand wedding as tittering guests in their pews, musicians questioning her distrait from their choir apse above as holy sisters in the wings and altar boys near the tabernacle spin around her dizzying world spattered with pink flowers, white lace and then consequently gold sparkles that dance about the air above their heads until they form into the semi-translucent figure of a Fata named Lili, who holds his hands over his pointy ears to shield them from the ensuing racket. The increasing banging hailstorm of noise was like a tremendous ricochet of a barrage of bullets now overwhelming the entire church that only she, Hino Kahoko, and Argento Lili appeared to hear.

"Len! Len! What's happening?! Len!" Kaho cries out, kneeling to the ground in a fetal position to shelter herself from the relentless torrent of staccato pelting sounds that utterly ruined her wedding ceremony.

Len's gallant arms were soon embracing Kaho to his chest protectively, as he huddles his body around hers, though not understanding at all her sudden inexplicable behavior, he still  
empathized with her fear.

"Shh...Kahoko...Shh..."


	70. Chapter 70 - By The Dawn's Early Light

**Chapter 70: " By the Dawn's Early Light"**

"Shh...Kaho-senpai...Shh!" Len's soft breathy voice consoling her is warped in both pitch and gender as it transmutes into something much more effeminate in her cloudy mind. Hino's eyes pop open upon physically being shaken awake by her roommate Shouji Megumi, whose eyes were full of anxious worry.

There Kahoko was, still lying on their shared bed in their shared room at the Casa Austria castle the group was visiting—and sadly not at her wedding ceremony with Len, though it was regrettable...

"It was all just a dream..." Kaho sighs with a pout in realization of the all too convincing dream sequence she fell for totally.

Still, apart from the earsplitting hailstorm at the end part, her dream wedding looked absolutely marvelous!

Especially that extremely appealing Prince Charming of a studly groom standing before the altar named Tsukimori Len.

"A dream? Oh! What kind of—?" Interested in the subject of subconscious visions recently, she having quite a few rather titillating ones herself of late involving a certain wine-hued young man, Shouji seemed to be considering the drowsy girl's spacy words for about half a second before her perturbed eyebrows knit in disquieted anxiety again.

"That racket out there isn't just a dream! Though I wish it were!" Shaking her head frantically, Shouji whispers in fright, gnawing at her knuckles, with the sheets in the shared bed pulled around her head in an attempt at muffling the scary sounds.

"I was almost about to fall asleep and this just started happening! And then you were tossing and turning and calling out Tsukimori-senpai's name—I had to wake you up! I was so scared." Hearing bumps in the middle of the dark night in a strange place far flung from home, it was easy for the mousy girl to become a scaredy-cat.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation." Pulling herself fully awake, Kaho gives her sleeping buddy a quick shoulder hug before gathering herself up. She pulls over her red ribboned nightie the salmon/melon jacket from the armchair she had discarded it upon earlier, slipping into her slippers to bravely face the unknown noise beyond the window's panes like a true heroine.

The redhead quite courageously, in Shouji's terrified eyes, yanks open the curtains leading to the balcony and cautiously surveys the area.

"I don't see anything." Kaho objectively says, leaning her face close to the cold glass to be able to peer her straining eyes into the waning moonlit darkness.

"Look out!" Shouji's frantic whisper cries, but not in time for Kaho to jerk back.

Although she was not physically injured, Kaho had just gotten the cookies knocked out of her, as a slew of rocks out of the blue pelt the clear glass directly at her eye level.

"Whoa! What is going on out there?!" Her tentative fear of the dark unknown is totally wiped out by the fury of a redhead aroused.

Kaho flings open the glass door, just daring the flying artillery of missiles to fire upon her unprotected form as she rushes over to the balcony's ledge. And then her hungry eyes soak up a welcome, yet surprising, sight to greet them.

"There you go, Len-san. Told you she'd hear us eventually." Kaho hardly expected to see her subdued and studious Tsukimori Len as the purveyor of throwing rocks at unsuspecting girls' windows in the wee hours of the night.

But with Etou Kiriya in the darkness as his willing accomplice, handful of ammunition pebbles in smirking hand, you could have knocked Kahoko down with a feather.

"Kahoko, please forgive the disturbance at this early hour, but I have something for you." Tsukimori, looking rather suave with his loosened tie-less collar undone, had a guilty expression mingled with a touch of yearning on his pretty boy face as he calls up to her in the quietest tones possible and yet be heard in the still night.

"Golly, he's beautiful in the moonlight." All other thoughts gone by the wayside, Kaho incoherently comments on her handsome beau, her eyes glued to his pale blue slender statured visage below. It was a reverse balcony scene reminiscent to her of a duet she and her  
dashing violinist 'played' under the moon before, whose serenading notes still rang so crystal clear in her romantically nostalgic mind to the melody of their 'Ave Maria'.

"You can say that again." Kaho had not noticed Megumi sidle up beside her on the terrace to overlook the pair of roguish violinists come a-late night calling.

Kaho glances sideways at the openly drooling girl, to thankfully discover that Shouji had in mind another musical genius's stunning features enhanced by the natural ambiance of this moonlit 5 AM hour.

Etou Kiriya, back in his usual maroon/burgundy fur-lined hoodie, was arrogantly leaning against a nearby fenced area of the garden he and Len had secretly snuck out of the Villa to invade below her terraced window.

Both his hands casually stuck in his pockets, there was a closed eyes expression on his hung head smirking face that had only one proper word for it:

_Smug._

But Etou could afford to be with his gorgeous good looks, phenomenal musical skills, fortuitous family background, and recent full assurance of reciprocated newly awakened love. The confident teen was all too cool in comparison with the rest of the world's sorry bunch of 16-year-olds. He was almost unreal.

And Shouji Megumi adored the tall lanky boy for all he was—and more.

"So?" Etou prompts blue man seemingly transfixed in his gaze upwards wistfully, like a modern Romeo romancing his beauteous Juliet on her balcony under the moon.

"I said I'd help you get Kahoko's attention. It's up to you to get up there yourself. Not my prob." Etou shrugs dismissively.

"Wouldn't it have been much more prodigious to simply cross the hallways from our section into the girls' wing of the Villa and knock on her door to beg for an audience in the first place?" Len sighs at the convoluted nature this simple affair had become.

"Wouldn't it have been way more _'prodigious' _to get caught sneaking in the girl's bedroom by a sleeplessly pacing chaperone like  
Akihiko-san on prowling guard duty? I prefer this more clandestine route myself. Adds a layer of cool drama anyway, for their last night here." Etou sarcastically portends to a non-ruffled Len.

"I suppose. But how am I to..." Tsukimori trails the sentence as his steady eyes tear themselves away from his lady love to glance about the darkness in search of the ladder or hidden stairwell up to the second story balcony, when the answer is revealed in a hands-on sort of way.

"Watch and learn...Sen~pai." Swiping a single rose from Len's small romantic token of a bouquet for his Kaho with a deft hand, Etou throws over his shoulder the challenging ridicule to his violin rival's critical lack of over-the-top hard driven spontaneity—something that the American-born boy never was troubled with, to the complete amazement of the two enthralled females greedily drinking in the striking scene from their vantage point on the terrace above.

The teen's lean thin body, feeling its oats keenly this early morn, first grabs hold of the garden trellis, pulling himself up muscular limb by limb until he transfers his sinewy form to the ornamental stone pillars in his cat burglar like ascent to the second story balcony.

With a final audacious handspring, the wiry lad fearlessly pounces onto the terrace, landing without so much as breaking a sweat.

"That was incredible! You're like an action movie star, Kiriya!" Megumi sucks air into her breathless lungs she'd withheld it from as she'd watched her new fiancé climb up to her from Ground Zero level, arriving on both feet with feline agility.

No stunt doubles required.

It was funny though, that despite his quick witted bravado and flaunted reflexes after intrepidly scaling the shaky trellis and handhold-less pillars, Etou Kiriya appears to blush under the lacy pink night-shirted girl's wowed gaze greeting him upon the ledge.

"Here, Megu." The stolen red rose that had Errol Flynn-esque been dashingly clenched between brash young teeth on his astounding climb up, is uncomfortably stuck out to her.

"You're wonderful, Kiriya." Not noticing one bit, Megumi was literally drooling on him by now.

"I know." Cocky attitude returned to normal, her teenaged hero grabs her arm and pulls her into the bedroom, slamming shut the glass doors behind them, and letting the curtains fall back into place.

"Let's go get some of those gingerbread cookies they had in the kitchen—if Akihiko-san left us any." Debonair leading man/action hero turns impetuous child star in the flash of an eye, as the young pair depart the bedroom entirely.

"Wow. I never knew Etou-kun was so athlet—Len, what are you doing?!" Kahoko's heart leaps to her throat when she turns back to see her Len, her serious, straitlaced, stoic Len—slinging hand over once so well protected hand like an agile mountain climber rather than a concert level gifted violinist.

Half elated, half terrified, all exhilarated, Kahoko leans over to see her beautiful love acting so—so... manly...her interrupted dream of before was worth it if just to see this priceless, irreplaceable scene of daring heroism performed by her blue knight in shining armor,  
scaling the latticed trellis, then mounting pillar to terrace wall with ease, all for her sake.

"Oh, Len." Kahoko can finally let out a sigh, as his streamlined muscles catapult long legs over the railing and onto solid safe ground again to stand tall and erect before her.

"Hello, Kahoko. It's good to see you looking so well." The vigorously strapping young man of a few moments of intense exertion reverts back into the quiet subdued cultured creature Hino recognized immediately for his clumsy shyness when dealing with relationship's emotions. The deducted rose bouquet that was slightly the less for wear, jammed in his waistbelt on his journey upward, is offered wilted to her laughing eyes.

"Hello, Len. They're lovely... really." She smiles her gratitude, even as the delicate pink and red buds hang their heads from their journey's trauma. It was the thought that counted. Kahoko coquettishly bats her eyelashes at her stunning fiancé.

_Fiancé! We are to be married! Together, forever..._Her heart screams in triumphant joy, though small corner of it was sadly aware that this dream too had to end with the sunrise. She was going home to Japan in the morning and Len would still be here attending classes at the Conservatory, at least until the Spring.

They wouldn't be together again until her music school's transfer was approved, Kaho wondering how long official channels, even with Kira Akihiko, Tsuzuki Mari and both the Kanazawas' prestigious pull, would really take.

And Hino also knew full well she had a lot of pressure to perform her music more than decent enough at the Conservatory to be worthy of all those wonderful people's above and beyond kindness to her.

Her fantasized wedding plans would just have to be on hold a bit until everything was sorted out. Kaho understood that.

But that resignation still didn't take the sting out of being separated from her love again for the interim.

"Kahoko?" Len's beautiful voice sings her name, sensing her deep consternation somehow.

"What did you want to give me that couldn't wait until morning?" Shaking off her worries, Hino changes the unspoken subject with the sweetly smiling question.

"Yes, well, earlier, I was changing my clothes, preparing for bed—" For some reason, the word 'bed' causes a certain red fluster to climb his suddenly tensing shoulders to flushing high cheekbones as his eyes involuntarily dart between the lovely girl and the unmade bed abandoned inside the glass terrace doors.

"—Ahem. And upon inspecting my blazer's top pocket, I discovered this. I thought you might be missing it due to my neglect." Tsukimori produces a small black box, containing a delicate golden chain and places it gently in Kahoko's open palm.

"My necklace?" Kaho glances down to the rare blue diamond golden ring adorning her left hand ring finger now, and then to its silver mate encircling Len's mirrored digit. Her fingers clutch to where the necklace normally resided, for she had worn it upon her neck  
dutifully every day since he left for the continent, quite unaware it was worth over a hundred-thousand yen.

She realizes just then, that in those thrilling unforgettable moments when her Len went down on one knee and proposed marriage to her, slipping the golden specially intertwined ring to her finger, the silver to his, she had lost track of the necklace chain that had been her intimate companion for these two years, holding fast and secure about her neck the promise of a destined future's happiness.

Instantly recognizing the cherished chain she had polished and handled with utmost care for all that time, Kaho runs her fingers down its cool precious metal links lovingly with a grateful smile as he drapes it over her fingers with his long thin ones caressingly.

"Did I ever tell you the secret of this necklace chain?" Len dangles both tantalizing question and shining 24 karat Russian gold mixed with high tensile strength Italian platinum in the sun-rising glints of first light.

"Secret?" Kaho is beyond words intrigued as the sparkling chain glimmers as he spins it in the glimmering rays.

"Have you ever counted the number of the links of the chain?" He asks with a knowing smile. Kaho shakes her dumbfounded yet excited head negatively, her breaths making puffs in the cool breeze. But the fact that her love was near kept her warm inside.

And her fascination had been thoroughly piqued by Len's inscrutable puzzling words.

"I asked the jeweler, who is a very good friend of my father, to personally craft for me this specially forged pure platinum and genuine gold chain, having both precious metals' intrinsic strength and beauty, and precisely consisting of exactly 365 links." Tsukimori reveals the cryptic mystery to Kaho's widening amber eyes.

"Each shining one signifying that every single day of the year links my unbreakable love for you." Len was in a whisper by now, as he resecures his thoughtfully created platinum and gold necklace treasure around his treasured Kaho's grateful neck.

His hand completing its task, slides up the hollow of her slender neck to her cheek, the other steadying her shoulders as lips move in to lock with hers with the latent, dormant passion her love had awakened in his once lonely wayward soul.

Hino Kahoko closes her eyes in raptures, Tsukimori Len fulfilling her held dear dreams of absolute adored perfect love expressed in soft words, tender sentiments, and delicious kisses.

When lips touch and melt into one with reckless abandon, aureate chords of soulful music play in both their hearts cherishing these moments as Len finally lets his inhibitions soar to the winds beyond the horizon with the purity of his love for this girl who changed his life into a new and wondrous being.

His kiss on her lips, his ring on her finger, his heart in her hands, Hino Kahoko looks forward to 365 more sunrises like this one, and more, when, after a patiently bided time, Len could keep her in his arms forever and a day, as the emerging sun sheds its all encompassing light and warmth over the cold world and beyond the tall stately fir treed skyline, by the rising glow of dawn's early light...


	71. Chapter 71 - Love's Wake Up Call

**Chapter 71: "Tomorrow's Melody"**

The clear crisp morning soon took up residence over all of Austria's glossy landscape. As if by design, at daybreak, songbirds gather a musical chorus in skies above Salzburg until their blithe notes drift down upon Swoboda Villa and stream into every occupant's sleepy window with beneficent tidings of both '_Hello_' and '_Goodbye_'...

"Good morning, Kaho!"

"Good morning, Megu-chan!"

Upon entering the extremely messy bedroom across from the one she and Mizue shared, where some secret rendezvous took place  
practically beneath her own heart-aching sleepless nose, Amou Nami took no mind of the discombobulated state of the royal room as she makes a forced noisy beeline for the queen sized bed where Hino Kahoko and Shouji Megumi were supposed to be bunking together.

The two newly affianced young women had far too many dreams and hopes in common, not to mention a platinum array of sunrise kisses and Shanghai-ed dawn gingerbread men to blissfully fantasize over to grant either of them proper sleep.

Or make either lovestricken girl a coherent roommate for anyone else.

So it was decided that Hino and Shouji would be logical sleeping partners, for neither would attain much rest. Good thing too, since Tsukimori and Etou appeared to have just about as little want for shut-eye this night as their respective ladies. It seemed even masculine hearts dared soar on the highest wings of anticipationwhere feminine hearts entertained an exhilaration that equally left no quarter for the mundane.

Not that many of the other girls allowed themselves such a luxury either. After each of their romantic young men were shooed off to their own beds by vigilant chaperones, Kanayan and Ousaki, who carefully watched every 'good night' tender kiss until the bedroom doors were all safely closed for the night, leaving the gossiping giggling girls gathered in their collective room.

Some were quietly in raptures, while others' recounted their evening romances unabashedly long into the night with each other.

Tsuzuki Mari was a bit more lenient than her in-authority male counterparts. She understood a feminine heart far more than most would have credited her prim exterior of doing. She had her own fair share of one beating wildly within her chest this night, for far more than silence passed between she and the cool director of SeisoMusicAcademy under the moonlight guiding the Rolls Royce on its late night trip back to the villa.

Her surprise package was thwarted in delivery, though, due to many reasons of the night's excitement we won't go fully into.

So Mari still had anticipation for the moment to come.

**_"Meep! Meep! Meep! Meep! Meep!"_**

Amou Nami sounded more like the Road Runner than the alarm clock she was attempting to approximate. But the similarly speedy flutterbudget's noisy interruption had the desired effect nonetheless.

"Nami-san?" Kahoko groggily opens her sleepy eyes from the few sparse hours of shut eye afforded them.

"Get up, lazybones! We've just time to dress and have breakfast before it's time to hit the road again! Or sky, if you're being technical." The bright eyed, bushy tailed reporter with a motor mouth that ran off the hook invariably, rarely appeared tired, as she throws herself onto the morning, and physically starts tugging the blankets and bedding from Hino and Shouji off the bed, along with them.

"Right..." Kaho smiles, a touch bittersweet though, as she glances first at the blue sky awaiting her out the window above, and then to the engagement ring no longer around her neck, though the special chain was present again never to leave, but the ring it once held was securely placed on her left hand finger, along with her Len's pledge of love.

"Megu-chan! Megu-chan...! It's time to—Ohh!"

Kahoko, content in her most dulcet tones, tries to calmly awaken her sleeping buddy when the tawny haired girl's folded arms fling out and wrap around her shocked waist.

"Kiriya...you're so nice and warm..." The delirious words were as lucid as the sentiment behind them. The satisfied smile adorning Megumi's breathy lips on her blissfully closed-eye face spoke volumes of their own of her dreamworld prince.

"Uhhh...getting a little intimate there, aren't we, Megu-chan? What kind of fantasy were you having about 'Mr. Gorgeously Wild and Not So Hard to Get Anymore', hmmm?" Leaning down to Megumi's face, Nami stifles a laugh insinuatingly, quite oblivious to a great deal of the early morn's excitements for either girl.

Shouji's eyes flutter open. The investigative journalist had a tough enough time getting an itsy bitsy interview with the superstar violinist and couldn't imagine how Shouji Megumi had landed the whole package — marriage proposal, his mother's Seiso class ring, horse drawn carriage — all in one fell swoop.

"Nami-san! Leave her be!" Petting the silky caramel hair of the girl who buried her sleeping red face in Kahoko's side, the redhead chides the reporter's insensitivity.

Kahoko felt a high degree of camaraderie for the quiet, timid, tenderhearted pianist, who over the years of tumult and tears, had become her very dear friend. She also knew that Megumi was almost too fragile to tease.

"Really nice ones." But an almost drooling Megumi utterly surprises her audience—maybe she wasn't as tender and fragile as they all believed anymore, after all. She lifts her head proudly and answers serenely enthused, rather than stuttering over some embarrassed excuse.

And to top it off, she quite floors them by adding with a dreamy sigh:

"My Kiriya's so perfect in every way..."

**_Splat! Splat!_**

Down the pair goes. Both Hino and Amou come back up in a sea of giggles and hugs around the happy girl that Sakimoto Mizue and Mori Manami can't help but join in the laugh when they come into the room to roust out of bed their running late friends.

"Now that we are all reassured how 'perfect in every way' Etou-kun is —" Nami sarcastically winks to the other girls, as she escorts a dizzy in love Shouji with a gentle arm to the shower room, Miyabi dragging a similarly beside herself, incoherent with pure joy Ayano into the bedroom with greeting nods and sisterly embraces.

"And no doubt Tsukimori-kun as well!" Mizue teasingly pinches Hino's upper arm as she aids the harried girl in getting off her nightie's ties. Kahoko gives her a playful, somewhat mysterious smile in return, still savoring Len's flawless early morning kiss.

"Hey! Don't forget Yunoki-senpai! He's definitely high up in the 'perfect' class, eh, Ayano-chan?" Mori pulls into the conversation the dark, once subservient girl, whose repressed emotion heretofore made her always seem like a delicate flower that struggled towards the light. But now, if any of them looked in Ayano's eyes, the light glowing within them was so brilliant, it was obvious her beautifulblossom was planning on standing straight and tall from now on.

"Aw, heck! All our boys have been pretty darn amazing on this adventure. Seiso must be doing something darn right to churn out such fine specimens of men, if I do say so myself." Amou had her own winsome Seiso graduate in mind.

"They have given the male race, as a whole, a reason to hold their heads high, after all." Nao felt uncharacteristically generous to the gender this morning as she proudly makes the statement with a familiar glint as she enters the room. All night she had been thinking of a certain someone with a soft voice and languid eyes, who, if not manly, was a fine specimen of something anyway. She gives Hino the order with a simple thumb motion to get a move on and slaps her arm with a proffered towel as she does.

"Mio agrees! Sho-chan can hold his head really high!" Raising her hand to depict a lofty height, Mio's little voice pops in agreeably with her best friend, missing the point, if not the sentiment concerning her own tall fella, entirely.

"Okay! Shower's still running! Hope you like it real hot too, Kahoko! We know that Megu-chan does..." Amou shouts tauntingly as she goes in the bathroom to retrieve Megumi, and comes back to deposit one dreamy, squeaky clean girl onto the bed, leaving it up to Mizue, Manami, Nao, Mio and Miyabi to towel her body, blow dry her hair and dress her up like a doll in a mesmerizing flash of feminine hands scurrying before the breakfast bell chimes for the third time.

* * *

"Is this what the Seiso class ring still looks like? I hope mine will—it's so pretty!" Miyabi buffs Megumi's engagement ring as the plummy haired kohai puts the finishing touches on the supremely happy girl's ensemble, the younger girl handling the new treasure with care.

"Ummm...I think the gemstone color changes every year." Manami glances over their shoulders as she and other girls prep Kahoko's wardrobe from her suitcase for one final time.

"Isn't that right, Shoko? Heyyy...what's that you've got there?!" In the corner of her keen eye, Manami thought she spotted a certain streak of silver striped fur flash under the knapsack flap of Shimizu's ever present favorite yellow and orange bag.

Fuyuumi Shoko covers the erstwhile flap with trembling hands, looking up to Mori and swallowing hard with a guilty, frightened smile. The quiet clarinetist then returns to folding the other girls' clothing and stuffing them into suitcases with a nervous flourish.

"Why do you have Shimizu's infamous rucksack this morning anyway, Shoko?" Her curiosity was piqued now.

A smiling Mori reaches across the bed that an obviously averted-eyed Fuyuumi was furiously making, to move the flap. But Shoko's quick hand moves the bag purposely out from Mori's grasping reach.

"I thought I noticed something going on with that bag being bandied about last night. What have you and Shimizu been hiding in there?" Amou hears the kerfuffle and dashes to the 'scene of the crime'. She adds her questioning raised eyebrow to Mori's laughing ones at the comical scene of Fuyuumi continuing to tug the bag even further away.

Mio and Nao pause in their sweeping of the floors and Miyabi and Mizue abandon a half-naked Shouji to finish dressing her delirious self, when they hear the Ace Reporter's loudly vocal display of suspicious intrigue on the other side of the room.

"N-n-nothing...!" Shoko bites her pale lip so hard it nearly bleeds, as the group gathers around her curiously.

"Uh-huh, you're a poor liar, Shoko." Tall Nao smirks down, hands on her hips at the poor girl, making Shoko feel quite small, causing her shrink back onto the bed, nearly in tears by now.

"_Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive._..." Mizue begins taking teasing poetic license.

"Oh! What's inside! Open it! Open it already! Mio wants to see!" Mio was about to explode in anticipation of the mystery, grabbing Ayano's unbeknownst elbow and jerking her hands about like a floppy puppet doll in her over-excitement.

"I'M SURPRISED AT YOU GIRLS! Leave Shoko-senpai alone! She has the right to keep a secret, if she wants to." Miyabi was the shivering girl's lone defender as she stands between the aqua haired girl and her accusers with a protective hug around her shoulders.

Or so Shoko thought.

"But you probably don't **REALLY** want to keep any secrets from your ever-loving Girl Power sisters, do you, Senpai?" Wide-eyed Miyabi's persuasive wheedle warrants Shoko shaking her head at the mere idea. "I didn't think so." Miyabi simply states, easily pulling the knapsack in question towards her and popping open the snap flap to reveal...

"Ohhh...what a sweet secret he is...!" A collective hush falls, as Miyabi sighs and giggles all the same time, as she lifts up the teeny tiniest striped black and grey tabby kitten, with eyes still tightly shut from sleep, and holds him up for all the girls to see.

"Please don't tell...He's no trouble at all, and so quiet...and only drinks his bottle of milk..." Shoko whispers plaintively as Miyabi strokes the silver-furred face right down to its cute little nose.

"Awww..."

The adorable little bundle's closed eye, weeny mouth opens in what they thought would be a meow, instead deciding to be a yawn as the kitten purrs drowsily, and cuddles its soft head against Miyabi's hand, falling back asleep.

"Where did you get this widdle fuzzy wuzzy angel?" Mio tickles its tummy as Mori scratches its ear and Mizue pokes its little nose, all the besotted females huddling around 'oohing and ahhing' like silly schoolgirls.

It's funny how girls turn into an illiterate bunch of cooing doves when it came to small, furry creatures, especially one as cute as this tiny kitten, as they all take turns giving him a pet, a back scratch or a rubbing on his warm dry nose.

"Well..." Shoko swallows with an anxious smile before she speaks, but the girls look at her invitingly.

"Just as we were about to leave the Basilica last night, Shimizu-kun found this kitten, blindly staring up at him, swaying and purring to his cello music in the far corner of the choir apse. He couldn't even see his way up the stairwell to the choir apse we were performing on, so we don't know how he got up there...but, Sister Maria said that her cat recently had kittens and this one had gotten lost from the litter, somewhere in the chapel, when she was finding homes for the rest." Shoko pauses in her recount of the prior night's adventures to swallow, sheepishly meeting each of her listener's encouraging eyes.

"But when he started to play his cello, 'Maneki' appeared at his feet and began purring as if he was listening to Keiichi's cello intently—that is, Shimizu-kun's cello—as if it was the only thing keeping the nearly blind, frightened of the world little cat from running away. Sister Maria said we should take him, though he's a sleepy, sickly thing, and that our coming was a blessing for him—as if he was waiting to belong with us. Of course, Shimizu-kun wanted to take him immediately, especially when the wee kitten climbed into his rucksack, while I was speaking with the Sister. Shimizu-kun fell asleep in front of the organ with 'Maneki' curled up in the rucksack on top of his cello. It was so sweet to see. Sister said that they were two of a kind, my silver and gold treasures that I must care for always...and I will...God willing..."

It was the longest paragraph that Fuyuumi Shoko had ever put together in her life. But between the tears in her eyes as she told her heartfelt story and the sweet kitten's incessant contented purring, now in the safe refuge of Shoko's lap, the girls were all enthralled.

"That's so sweet of you two to adopt the poor little guy, Shoko-chan! But who couldn't love him? And knowing Shimizu-kun and animals? It _would _take our resident boy angel to be like a pied piper for a lost little fellow like this one. But why the name? Maneki?" Nami asks, ever inquisitive as she takes out her own 'aibou' for a heartwarming shot of the slumbering baby kitten.

"Well, Keiichi named him that, because, when the two of them woke up, Sister Maria told us when he was hungry it was his habit to do—that..." Shoko's smiling explanation needed no further word, as the tiny kitten wakes up, sits up and raises his left paw—a real life imitation of the imitating maneki neko statues that were famous all over Japanese culture as their beloved lucky cat.

**_Click! Flash!_**

Maneki was an instant photogenic sensation, assimilating the famed statue's pose to a T. His tight shut eyes pop open for a second after the blinding flash to the girl's chortling applause and wonder.

* * *

"Why thank you, girls. I know I'm awesome in the mornings. But your applause is greatly appreciated."

A crass low voice rudely breaks into the bedroom with a quick bow, more than a few gasps and shrieks being let out when the females collectively turn to see the egotistical uninvited male intrude on their adorable scene.

"Sho-chan!" Her hands waving in delight, despite wearing nothing much beyond her orchid rose print nightshirt and matching Bermuda shorts, Mio squeals in joy to see her hunky guy standing in the open doorway. Though most of the other girl's hands were rushing to modestly cover up their own state of undress and or nightwear a boy's eyes were not permitted to see—_beyond their own guy's, that is_.

"Didn't you hear me knocking? Guess not with all the ruckus going on in here. What are you gals up to? Boy, I thought the guys' room was a pigsty…"

Fudou Shoma had an inimitable way of making an entrance, his nonchalant eyes scanning the state of the messy room as he carelessly strides in rather than having any interest in the bounty of under dressed young women his sudden appearance scattered about it that most of his sex would find much more titillating.

"What are you doing in here, Shoma?! Get out!" Shielded under her protective arm, Nao shoos Mio away to help the others hurriedly  
finish dressing Megumi, Nao standing to her full 5'9 imposing height. Thankfully dressed early herself, she gives the bad-mannered bloke a wrathful tongue lashing and evil-eyed order, to which the impertinent boy flippantly replies with a wicked grin and clipped salute:

"Reporting for duty, Sarge! Just dropped in to give Pata2 this case I refitted to house her new maracas so they don't get damaged when we travel, if that's okay by you, Sir!" He holds out the makeshift insulated lunchbox he'd carved spaces in to secure Mio's new musical presents.

"Argh!" Nao throws her hands up in anger, about to unleash another barrage of unkind words at the disrespectful man when he peers behind her back and sees the kitten batting a shower puff Nami had brought for him, back and forth on a nightstand by the bed.

"Hey? Who's your little friend belong to, Purple Pata?" Shoma ignores Nao and addresses the only other occupant of the room, besides Mio, who wasn't **A)** hiding behind the closet doors and curtains, or **B) **looking daggers and missiles at him to leave already.

"Shoko-senpai and Shimizu-senpai. The nun at the Basilika they went to last night said this little blind kitten belonged with them. Poor sweet thing. Oh! Watch what he can do, Shoma-senpai!" Miyabi rubs Maneki's tummy, making the frightened kitten purr again, then sit up and raise his left paw like a living breathing wind up toy.

"Wow! Just like that funky cat statue good luck thing Yosuke's obsessed with, though it did him no good." Scratching behind Maneki's ears playfully with one hand as he sits on the girls' bed comfortably, Shoma murmurs beneath his breath to a chuckling Miyabi. His eyes motion towards the sourpuss 'Sarge' observing him with disdain from her guard-post across the room.

Mio was watching, too, more than a little envious that friendly Miyabi was allowed to chat with HER guy and SHE wasn't!

"I—I—I hope we'll be able to take him on the airplane. He's so little and scares easily, I wouldn't want him to travel in the cargo hold. I—I hope it's all right to bring Maneki on board, F-F—Fudou-senpai." Shoko manages to shakily say as she attempts to put the kitten back in Shimizu's rucksack but Maneki was still being spoiled by all the people wanting to tickle his tummy.

"No worries, girls! I've snuck my share of stowaway passengers on the planes between Switzerland and Japan when I was a kid."

"Really? Do tell, Senpai!" Nami's interest was piqued now, as she, Manami, Mizue and a fully clothed Megumi, prompted by Mio, join the group surrounding the talkative boy, with Nao still glaring over the scene cautiously.

"Well, you might find this a little gross—'cause you're girls—but I raised a family of caterpillars in Geneva when we lived there. Not the scrawny white ones, but those great big fuzzy yellow and brown and black types that turn into monarchs, crescents, maybe even  
checkerspots! Hey, I was a kid." Shoma, to his surprise, gains just as many intrigued looks as he does squeamish ones.

"Long story short, when it was time to immigrate back to Japan, I wanted to take them along with me. So I rigged one of Big Bro's big fat stupid Shakespeare books (Mizue glares) and tore out the pages to make my little buddies a makeshift mobile home of a sort. They were all happy as clams, minding their own crawly business, until—"

"What happened?!" All the girls, by now, despite those icky buggy shivers, crowd around Shoma and the kitten whom he was cupping in his big palms, scratching behind its ears as he shares his childhood tale, quite relaxed to have the girls' thrilled attention. Most of them were either leaning on the bed or kneeling at his feet intently listening.

_Hey, I'm gonna be a rock star! Gotta get used to adoring fans..._

"Aniki's dumb bad luck kicked in when he went in our bag for a book to read and, of course, chose the one he'd read already a million times—All together, girls:"

"SHAKESPEARE!"

"Yup. And out fell my stowaways, inching across the floor, the seats, the window — everywhere! Good thing Yosuke had that pretty brunette stewardess wrapped around his finger by then —" Shoma realizes a second too late he had said too much again as Nao's keenly listening ears and eyebrows shoot up at his unwitting revelation.

She makes a mental note to beware of 'pretty little brunette stewardesses' on the plane ride home today and idly wonders just how many brunettes', blondes' and redheads' broken hearts she had to compete with scattered across the continent of Fudou Yosuke's youth.

"So, did they all turn into pretty butterflies when you got back to Yokohama?" Miyabi asks, a hopeful look for a happy ending for this funny lil' pet and loving owner cherished tale.

"Nah, not a one. Unfortunately I left them out in the birdbath to get some sun and it rained while we were eating dinner. All shriveled up into little balls when I got back out there the next morning." Shoma states rather callously male for all his enthralled listeners' tastes.

"OH NO! Poor little fuzzy catty-pillies!" Mio screeches in agony at Shoma's sad tale, her heart going out to each of the fuzzy creatures her Sho-chan had cared and tended to so lovingly until their accidental drowning demise.

But in her empathic enthusiasm for his sorrowful story from his early youth, Mio's panicked squeal and desperate grasp of Shoma's arm causes a skittish kitten perched snugly in his hand to fly up at her face. Mio flails backwards to avoid kitty claws, losing her balance in the process.

Shoma lunges forward to catch her, and he succeeds. But maybe a touch of his family's ill fortune comes into play when tiny Maneki chooses to land on all fours, dangerously dancing under Shoma's big sneakered path.

"AHHH! MANEKI! MIO! WATCH OUT! DON'T STEP ON HIM!"

Somehow, miraculously, Shoma agily manages to avoid squashing frantic fuzzy paws and tail, though he himself trips over his own feet, courageously prepared to take a fall in place of smashing the troublesome creature.

But he didn't realize he was bringing Mio along with him.

At the last second, Shoma whirls the small girl around so she would not hit the hard floor, fortunately maneuvering the descending pair to the safety of the bed.

Very fortunate indeed.

"Mio." His deep voice cracking as he opens his eyes to find the girl's lithe body pinned beneath him, Shoma feels strange sensations overwhelm his normally self-absorbed senses. It was doing something to him to have her, donning only her floral silk nightie, her brown shock of curly hair askew, her cheeks flushed and deep pink as the roses on her sleepwear, her breath short and wispy, eyes wide and inviting, in such close proximity to his face, that Shoma can't control himself from leaning down and claiming her lips for his own.

It was a kiss, out and out and blatant that he cared not, it seemed, to have an audience to or not.

Even an audience like Kobayashi Nao.

"You ARE just like your brother! GET UP, SHOMA!" The commanding tone of her voice snaps Shoma awake again, Nao growing accustomed to her own romantic tête-à-tête encounters with one Fudou. But now two of them at it?

_One Fudou Casanova is enough! What **is **the world coming to_?

"Yeah—I—um. Gotta help Aniki finish packing in our room. So—" Shoma jerks away his smooching mouth from atop Mio's silly giddy happy ones, he practically doing a backflip to remove himself from the incriminating bed position he was in and dash from the room to all his spectators' astonishment in blushing embarrassment.

"—Here. Put this on the cat. For luck on the plane. See ya later!" Shoma was speaking directly to Mio as he yanks off a red bracelet from his wrist and tosses it across the room to land perfectly on the bed beside the ecstatic girl.

Shoko gratefully accepts the red band from a-hugging it to her blushing cheek Mio, placing on the now slumbering kitten his new red collar with the jingle bell and inscribed medallion.

"It says 'Fuku'." Shoko whispers in awe, as if saying the very word aloud would bring its magical good fortune to pass onto Maneki as the kitten awakens and raises its trademark paw up, golden bell tinkling.

"Picture perfect. Nice touch, Shoma-senpai."

_CLICK._

Amou was sure that the kitten's utter cuteness factor would indeed bring a good luck angle to the end of her story.

Their stories.

The entire 'Girl Power' group knew that more than a few of them were lucky cats indeed, beguiled by hearts that loved music, thanks to this special journey they traveled together, as sisters.

Efficiently taking the initiative to help each other out, like one cohesive unit, the young women sense their time in this land of pure beauty was drawing to a close. But their melancholy soon melds into happy memories each made here with their significant other.

The girls pat their new good luck 'charm' as they hug each other, hold hands and sing along — greater friends than ever, as they finish dressing, packing and cleaning up in the blink of an eye. Their mission in Austria was a flying success in results for every member in matters of love that none of them ever imagined. Their dreams had come true, all for the sake of their dear friend, Hino Kahoko's true happiness, tying them all together with many strands of their interwoven golden cords of love.

In the background, Mio makes some rhythmic music of her own to accompany Maneki's lucky bells jingling merrily as she proudly fits her maracas in the case her wonderful Sho-chan made especially, thinking just of her.

* * *

"Len..." Blissfully unaware of her childhood friend causing a kerfuffle out there, Kahoko exits the fancy shower and stands before the clouded gold-gilt mirror, drawing hearts with certain names within them on the 'steamed' writing pad of its glass. As she dries her red hair with the monogrammed royal towels, she smiles inwardly.

_I can't believe this all happened in just over one week. _Kahoko smiles at her reflection, as she raises her left hand to reveal the golden band and the blue diamond that caught the light's refraction.

A thin string, constructed of pure gold, entwines the ring, to Tsukimori Len's specifications — where two tiny violins had been carved and etched by intricate hands onto the golden engagement ring setting — the thoughtful beauty of which was only unmatched by its sentiment, similar to the platinum and gold chain it was safeguarded upon by 365 unbreakable meanings.

"Oh, Len..." Kahoko whispers, kissing the one-of-a-kind ring he had designed personally, to her lips. Happy tears play behind her eyes, filled with joy and utter love.

"I wish you were coming home with me, today. I don't want to be separated from you another day." She murmurs, gingerly tugging the chain at her neck, caressing and kissing the ring now on her finger to her cheek, knowing that she still must be patient.

**_Knock, knock, knock._**

"Hurry up, Kaho! Those boys are going to start getting antsy down there without their breakfast!" Nao's bossy voice comes through the bathroom door, just as Hino was finishing up, pulling on the cute jacket over her white pearl and lace front button up shirt that the girls had picked out for her today.

It was her last day as their real life 'Barbie doll' whose dreams all came true, thanks to all the girls' amazing hard work and stick-to-it-iveness — all for her sake, out of the magic of friendship.

"I'LL BE RIGHT OUT!" Over the din of running sink water and blow dryers, rushing about like mad, dumping lip gloss into her bag and hair spray cans clattering and whooshing, Hino calls back loudly through the door, when a small voice catches her ear.

"Please don't shout! It's my head, you know!"

Hino cocks her own pretty head, hearing the somewhat familiar, though faint, voice coming from —

_The duffel bag?!_

Hino quizzically unzips the group's basically untouched the entire vacation duffel — containing extra sweaters and sheets and blankets, etc. — a feminine 'survival kit', if you will. She had brought it in, just in case she had needed an extra towel, she being the last to use the shower this morn after all, but the villa's toiletries were well provided.

Peeking within the dark folds was a small, not so bright light glowing. One exhausted looking Lili the Fata had snuggled deep within the warm, extra robe's soft velvety pockets, waving a tiny white flag of surrender with a weak arm, clutching his tiny head as he does so.

"Lili? Are you hurt?" Hino worries as she peers in to see what was wrong with her little friend.

"Shhhh! Just don't talk so loud, you know..." Lili holds his yellow head in pain, after putting hands over both aching ears and cringing with scrunched up eyes.

"Oh...I'll be quiet, Lili. You just rest. I'll tell the other girls, too." Realizing what ale-ed (heehee) the fairy, Hino takes pity and whispers lightly, wondering how long the poor Fata suffering from a hangover had buried himself in the folds of the Girl Power toiletry survival kit.

"HURRY UP! KAHOK—!?" It was Mizue's turn to give a reminder shout out to the reticent girl in the bathroom holding the rest of the gang up. But her efforts are halted by the bathroom door flinging open by a fully, albeit messily, dressed Hino Kahoko slapping a palm over Mizue's mouth, stifling her yelling beckon.

"Shh!" Hino shushes the bewildered nurse-in-training, the redhead pointing to the duffel bag on the bottom shelf.

"Why?" Mizue asks incredulously in her normal volume voice, garnering Kahoko's fiercest look. But Mizue was not privvied to the Seiso enigma as yet, never attending the magic blessed school.

"Shh!" Hino points again at the bag but the prosaic side of Mizue was not getting her drift at all, though there was always the poetic side where imagination ran rampantly...

"Oh!" Mizue whispers in what she thinks is total realization as she peeks her head into the bathroom, where, just beyond the shelf, the still partly steamed mirror held pictures of hearts and lovingly inscribed letters that spoke volumes to an over-romanticized nature as hers.

"Ah! You've inscribed in the steam a special verse of your first awakening morning's unrivaled betrothed love and you wish every palpable sentiment to stay alive in the very air, perhaps carried to your Len this very moment through the unspoken ether of your mutual love..." In awe, Mizue whispers, her own rambling poetic fantasies taking shape in quite unexpected turns.

Confused, Hino just stands there for a few seconds blinking at the romanticist, a quite lost look on her perplexed face, as most of what the girl just said had gone quite over her head.

"How romantic! I understand entirely, Kahoko. I only wish that all the other girls valued the significance of poetry as you and I do! But, alas, we'll have to discuss this in depth later, though I'm really looking forward to hear your views on music of the soul pertaining to life. But right now we must be leaving for breakfast. The other girls have already gone down — you took so long! I said **_I'd _**wait for you. I suppose I already knew we were kindred spirits deep down inside, my bosom friend!" With a swift shoulder squeeze, Mizue whispers her prattle as busy hands fly as fast as her lofty tongue.

"Now, here's a brilliant idea! When Ryo and I return to Vienna in the summer, perhaps we can arrange a room-share with Mrs. Heifmann at the House Doebling all together, so no one's ever homesick with friends constantly around! You and I can bunk, and I know Ryo _will be_ ecstatic about he and Tsukimori living under the same roof. There is some ironic poetry about that..." Musing, instinctively sensing the male rivalry and none too virtuous to not rub it into the wound a bit, Mizue clears shelves, wipes the sink, and hefts the duffel in record time before dumbfounded Kahoko has a chance to protest.

Mizue even ignorantly carries the bag containing Lili and dumps it unceremoniously to the floor with a thud.

"Oh!" Kahoko squeaks, gritting her teeth and feeling Lili's pain as she holds her own head in cringing sympathy.

"Don't worry! Your hair is perfect! As crimson as a_ 'Red, Red Rose'_...'_O my love's like a red, red, rose that's newly sprung in June; Oh my love's like the melody that's sweetly played in tune...'_" Mizue quickly quotes Robert Burns' famous poetry as she frantically pets Kahoko's long hair tresses straight, liberally spraying her own favorite perfume of rose scent upon them for good measure.

"There! And in the words of Shakespeare: '_A rose by any other name_'...is just as late! Make haste, Kahoko!" Literary bound, yet reality timecard punching, Mizue grabs the stunned heroine's hand and tugs her from the room with such speed and purpose that Hino Kahoko only had the chance for one stray thought to leave with the room's lone occupant—

"Sorry, Lili! But Len is waiting for me!" As she's scurried from the room, it was hard for a girl in love to keep her mind from wandering back to the place where the warmth of her true love existed...

…In a heart that belonged entirely to Tsukimori Len, yesterday, now and for always, as the tides roll in, throughout the sands of time...


	72. Chapter 72 - The Secret Ingredient Is

**Chapter 72: **"**The Secret Ingredient Is…"**

Their final breakfast at the Archduke's lavish table flew by at a breakneck speed the hallowed hall rarely experienced. The twenty-four rather harried visitors, in various degrees of hunger, anticipation, and sentimentality—and above all, chaos—all quickly (well, as much as the foreign word could apply to a still half-asleep Shimizu Keiichi) partake of the bountiful feast that the dutiful servants of the Villa cordially offered the rowdy gang who were mostly making goo-goo eyes and holding hands beneath the table with one another's prospective sweethearts.

After the hasty meal is finished, the servants amply thanked and accordingly tipped, the Seiso team's bags and luggage are all packed and loaded in the entourage of three of the House of Habsberg's chauffeured limousines that Kanayan and Caterina had arranged to bring their passengers to the ICE entry speed rail system that would whisk the travelers to Salzburg Airport and back to Vienna or Japan.

In a blur of excitement outside their limousine windows, our people bid farewell to Casa Austria and the Altstadt Old Town's pristine,preserved Baroque towers, churches and beautiful morning scenery where so many of them created memories of love together that would last a lifetime together.

The same sentimental feelings travel with them as they load onto the train in pairs to their seating in the train's passenger compartment with romantic notions as swift as the wind racing along with them on the railway's tracks.

* * *

**_Chugga-chagga-choo-choo!_**

* * *

"May Ayano be so bold as to ask you again? How many cupfuls of parsley am I to place in the simmering pot, Kanazawa-Okusan?" Takashina Ayano's no longer dulled eyes eagerly press the question of unknown cooking skills, for the rich girl had never been required— nor expected — to ever attempt anything in the kitchen beyond making tea, even once in her cultured sheltered life.

From the earnest look on the girl's eager-to-learn serious face that has been studiously, as if her life depended on its preciseness to work its miraculous wonders, pouring over the carefully marked down 'Kanazawa chicken soup' recipe that Ayano kept referring back to repeatedly for assurance on the train ride seated across from the now motherly soprano star, Caterina knew Ayano would make Azuma a devoted dutiful little wife who would surely stand by him to keep him on the straight and narrow all their days.

"Spoonfuls, dear. Teaspoons of parsley." Caterina chuckles at the apprenticeship's innocent mistake. "What a sweet child you are." The older woman pats Ayano's silken hair with admiration.

"Are you sure you will be able to sing at the ceremony in June—in your condition then?" The dark-haired girl speaks in a whisper as if speaking louder of the cherished day would break the magical spell.

"If the doctor's predictions are correct, all **three** of us will certainly be in fine voice by then, _God bereid _(God willing)." The tall blonde softly places her hand on her full abdomen in a proud motherly way.

"We would not miss his—or her—debut at your wedding for the world." Caterina smiles with tears in her eyes sparkling.

Ayano's lovely exotic eyes open wide to these new and exciting thoughts of the mysterious marvels that came along with marriage that perhaps awaited she and her Prince in a future not so distant, unfolding as rapidly as her understanding of her beloved's heart.

"Our wedding..."

Their eyes meet across the railroad car where Yunoki Azuma was humoring the train conductor when the all-important subject of imminent dietary provisions became a heated discussion between Hihara and his favorite old teach, the stylish young man intervening.

Yunoki's interest is piqued when he sees her once shy eyes alight with a secret hope that interested him thoroughly. He sends her back an intrigued, questioning smirk that would last until later for its reply, as Ayano's gaze, still fixed on her attractive fiancé, never breaks.

Quietly overhearing the entire feminine conversation over the seat behind her, leaning over the train seat's back, Shouji Megumi asks for her own spot of advice from the happily married woman.

"Is it frightening, Kanazawa-Okusan?" Megumi was still mystified by the unknown secret awaiting her as well, wondering what she did right to have been chosen by her own stunning intended, Etou Kiriya. Her high breathy voice in a girlish whisper, Megumi speaks in a hush of half-fear/ half wonder as she leans her cheek against the kindly woman's extended palm.

"If you have the strength of his love, there is nothing more you will ever need." Caterina says knowingly, understanding that both young girls, on the brink of womanhood's biggest next step, needed some mature reassurance that the Dutch woman was glad to impart.

Caterina was also grateful that, at this very moment, though unaware of the privileged conversation, Etou Kiriya, (who had taken this opportunity to contentedly take a noonday snooze after his exciting midnight adventure's weariness beside Megumi on the connected passenger seat), sneaks a familiar cuddling long limb around the blissful girl's tiny waist just as Yunoki 's eyes reach out to a sighing with inner elation Ayano, his questioning smirk erased into a tender nodding smile meant for her alone, across the passenger car's din.

"Yes, there is nothing more precious." Caterina smiles at her own leading man sending her a wave down the train's middle aisle.

"Life is much like making chicken soup, girls. It does not really matter the count of spices over the years you put into the mix, as long as a great deal of love is always mainly your secret ingredient."

Calming words of wisdom spoken straight from the healing heart.

* * *

"Hino-san? Tsukimori-kun, forgive me for interrupting." Mari Tsuzuki's melodic voice softly whispers to the blissful girl whose redhead was adoringly perched against Tsukimori Len's chest. Her hands were tightly clinging to his, as if to soak up every single heartbeat they had left together in physical ways that would soon be denied them as their destination draws nearer to an airplane that would take them some oceans apart again.

_But not in spirit, never never never..._

With the hidden ache in her heart Kahoko has kept whispering to herself all morning, she deeply breathes in her love's thick moonlit scent combination of musket, jasmine and sandalwood cologne, wishing she could drown in it, rather than be parted from him again.

His engagement ring firmly on her left fourth finger, Len lightly stirs awake the wistful girl in his arms.

"Kahoko." He whispers in those spicy tones that still thrilled her every sense every time he uttered her name. Opening her eyes, Hino lifts her head to see Mari waiting patiently for her attention.

"Tsuzuki-san?" She answers, wondering with a puzzled expression what the angsty look on the normally unvexed woman's face could mean as Mari leans down her head towards her from where she stood swaying from the forward motion in the train compartment aisle.

"Forgive me." She repeats her apology, nodding to Tsukimori for interceding for her with Hino. She was the last person to want to intrude upon the poor girl's final tender moments with her boyfriend—_oh yes_—fiance, but Mari was concerned for the welfare of a dear friend. "But have you seen, Lili? I have been trying to—"

The serious woman trails off, not quite knowing how to address properly 'summon the fairy,' and instead opts for: "I fear we may have left the poor creature behind at the Villa in our rush."

"Especially in his state of ill health last night, I should have been more vigilant..." Mari blames herself entirely for not pursuing Lili's whereabouts when they were still at the Archduke's residence, but Akihiko-san seemed to be in a hurry...

"Oh, don't worry! Lili's asleep in here." Kahoko smiles that happy smile that made everyone love her as she lifts the lid of the duffel bag carefully to reveal the snoozing little Fata, snuggled in its folds of soft fleecy sweaters, trilling notes as he snores peacefully.

"Oh, good. I suppose I won't disturb him, then." Mari seemed relieved and disappointed simultaneously. She leaves with a soft smile, but the look in her anxious eyes made it apparent that something more was on her mind as she returns to her seat beside the dark Director absorbed in a business call on his cell phone some rows ahead.

But before arriving as she pauses at the disorienting bump along the high-speed tracks, two seat rows behind her to the left, where Mari's keen eyes are struck by the unwell look upon her fellow passenger's face—one she believed to have concern for very much indeed, once upon a time.

Ousaki Shinobu was lying in a prone position across two seats. His closed eyed face seemed to be suffering in pain. Mari's heart fills with worry as she considers the normally healthy man's condition.

"Poor Shinobunny's gotten trainsick!" Amou Nami whispers over the startled woman's shoulder. Amou had "convinced" another passenger in the double large single seat for heavy-set passengers behind herself and Ousaki's train bench to kindly vacate it for an 'all-you-can-eat' lunch in the dining car on the Director's tab, so she could give her poorly boy some leg room to have a lie down while she watched over him and the scenery both, leaning over the seat from behind.

"My poor baby! Are you feeling any better?" Amou attentively crawls over the seat bench to wipe Ousaki's sweaty brow.

"Just close your eyes and try to rest. I'm right here." She brushes his errant hair aside using the cool cloth she had accosted from the passing conductor, with an encouraging smile at the convalescing man.

"Oh, yes, Nami-san! I'm fine. Please don't worry. Tell her not to be anxious for me, Tsuzuki-kun. It's just a little turn. I'll be perfectly fine soon." Ousaki opens his eyes with a wan smile up at them.

Mari noted how the undeniably adoring look he was giving Amou was doubly clouded with trepidation and the sadness of being split apart again, as a bead of sweat drips down his right cheek.

_I know that feeling, too, Ousaki-kun...all too well..._

But by the end of this trip, Tsuzuki Mari was a changed woman. The pained feeling, caused in the past by the man in question himself, she was reconciled with, but recognized that a similar heartache had reduced Ousaki to this state now.

The thought an impending loneliness you can do nothing about.

Mari had often felt like succumbing to its defeat herself before, but not anymore. Not now that Akihiko-san had given her purpose and fulfillment for her life. The sense that the older, more complex man's story held the missing piece to her life's puzzle had driven all the doubt away.

Ousaki and Amou were lucky they had that assurance already. Tsuzuki smiles as she watches Amou care for the resting man, tipped  
entirely over the backseat to tell lively jokes about the things and people she was observing. It made him laugh and smile in ways that Mari never could.

"I hope your condition improves soon." Tsuzuki lightly pats Ousaki's hand at his side before she returns to her own seat.

"Is there a problem, Mari?" Kira asks at her delay as he shuts down his phone conversation. His voice always grew soft whenever he spoke her name.

"Nothing but a little heartache." She answers enigmatically, with a shy smile, gazing through the window at the passing scenery.

"Oh, that." Dismissively, Kira was having a hard enough time with his own surging emotions to ever wish to infringe on those of someone else's issues, his crimson eyes surveying her thoughtfully.

* * *

"I wonder what Tsuzuki-san wants to see Lili about—Ouch!" Kahoko whispers as she carefully tucks Lili back in the duffel bag when, upon the train hitting a bump on the tracks, Hihara Kazuki's marauding elbow accidentally jostles Hino's arm, causing her to drop the bag to her train seat a bit too heavily as a result.

"Wrow! Sorwray, Kahrow-chwan." Hihara begs pardon with his mouth full of the cold cuts sandwich he, with Yunoki's cunning aid, had just cajoled from the conductor at this early morning hour, as the train dining car was not yet serving lunch.

But, who could ever deny Happy Hihara anything? Especially when he had his super cute little accomplice to back him up, giving her big baby green-gold puppy eyes at the impressionable middle-aged Austrian man in uniform a flutter or two this early in the morning.

"Want a bwaite?" Amidst his armfuls of goodies, Hihara's hungry hands offer an already been chewed off ham and cheese under Kahoko's nose.

Shaking her head, the girl shrinks back holding a hand to her face to suppress the smirking giggle at her "older" senpai's cheery antics.

_Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!_

"Hey! Did you just hear that? I thought I heard something funny coming from of Shimizu's ruck—" Hihara and his sandwich are victimized by the attack of so many Girl Power members all at once, from all sides, he didn't know what hit him or the parts of his 'cuts sando.'

"SHH! YOU HEARD NOTHING, KAZUKI-SAN." Miyabi mouths warningly, giving him her biggest cautioning eyes and tightest hand squeeze before taking whatever remained of the ham and cheese in his surprised hand, and stuffing it in his big mouth.

"Iaw hewrd nwoshing." Hihara obediently repeats, slowly chewing the rest of his sandwich and wondering as the female members all exchange conspiratorial glances and mischievous smiles of the extra passenger obscured in the aforementioned rucksack, who perhaps smelled food in the air.

Shoko is passed, sister to sister, a piece of cheese fallen from the clumsy noisy boy's sandwich, and watches it magically disappear into the bag on Shimizu's slumbering lap she holds it over.

* * *

"Are you all right?" Tsukimori asks with concern, as the redhead rubs her forearm that Hihara's rash elbow had awkwardly bashed in his teetering track down the compartment's middle aisle.

"Yes. It's no...thing... really..." Kahoko trails off as she indulges herself in Tsukimori's caring ministrations as he drops everything he was doing to tenderly massage her forearm. His gentle fingers delicately knead her lower arm as they caressingly move with light pressure, as if playing on her arm in place of his violin. Their eyes catch fire in one another's entrancement and everything else in the world fades away, save for each other.

As if unleashing an emotion suppressed, Kahoko throws herself bodily upon him, burying her sobbing face deeply in his chest.

Not quite knowing what to do, a novice in such a situation yet, Len's breath catches, his eyes perplexed, until he lets his inhibitions go and hugs her head to his cheek, fingers running unchecked through her red hair.

"Looks like you're pretty weak against Kahoko, Len-san." A teasing voice comes from the seat in front of him, and the laughter in Etou Kiriya's fuchsia eyes was about equal parts to that laced in his words as he turns around in his chair to comment on the cozy scene.

Len's embarrassed eyebrow raises, as if both caught and challenged by his fellow violinist at the same time as he clears his throat.

"Look, Kiriya! There goes our castle!" Shouji Megumi's excited words were more than enough to grab back Etou's full attention to her, the boy's eager parted lips seemed to hang upon every one of her whims as she points out their shining castle of white, standing on that hill in the distance as the train zips by.

Had Tsukimori Len been a more vengeful person, he might have thrown those peevish words right back at the younger violinist.

But Tsukimori Len was not that kind of man.

"Len... I need you near! Don't leave me." Kahoko can't help but stifle a sob, almost inaudibly into her love's warm chest, but he could painfully feel the intense meaning in them.

Tsukimori's firm arms envelop her, unbuckling her seat belt as he pulls her into his lap entirely, as would a parent of a small despondent child—or a lover answering his most precious love's fragile sorrows on his foolish account...

"Shh, my love. Never, never..." Len whispers, kissing her hair as he assures her of their inseverable bond... somehow...

And Hino Kahoko's most heartfelt plea went not unheard, by the one who wielded the golden cord that brought them together in the first place.

For even little pitchers have ears...


	73. Chapter 73 - Ticket to Ride

**Chapter 73: "Ticket to Ride"**

The moment the European Intercity Express (ICE) train comes to a halt and the compartment door opens for passenger departure, Tsukimori Len is on the move. He didn't even have to say a word for Tsuchiura Ryotaro to understand the look passing between the two men's eyes as the group on the train's platform waits outside the luggage compartment to collect their baggage.

_'Stay with her.'_

It was unspoken but eloquent enough for the tall burly piano player to take hold of Hino Kahoko's suitcase when hers and Len's come around the turnstile and the blue haired violinist wasn't there to claim the luggage for them.

"Where's Len?" Kahoko's eyes open wide and dart about in search of her missing love—her eyes had only left him for a few moments during the train's arrival at the disembarking platform confusion.

"He'll catch up with us." With a shrug, Tsuchiura responds in his unperturbed nonchalant way.

"But, why—?" She begins to question, hugging their two violin cases to her chest after Tsuchiura unloads them upon her to hold for a second.

"He had to do something! Sheesh, Kaho! How are you going to make it as that guy's wife? Even husbands need their space. Poor saps. Hmph." Grumbling like a dark green cloud ready to burst with some bad mood issues, the muscular jock hefts in his big bear hands his own and Tsukimori's luggage from the revolving rack in one hand and Kahoko and Mizue's baggage in the other.

"Do they now?" Mizue's high heeled boot 'accidentally' steps (_more like stomps!_) on the bad mouthing man's toe, causing Tsuchiura to come just short of screaming out in pain. But his hands let go of their overfilled load, suitcases and baggage all tumbling down to the platform ground with a crashing thud.

"Oh dear, what a mess. Aoi-san?" Said in her calm blase tones, Mori Manami was close enough to overhear the situation, she feeling a tiny bit of sympathy for her fellow pianist's painful podiatry problems.

_Only the teeny tiniest bit, mind you_!She sends her blameless, brainless bodacious hunk to the rescue.

"Hino-san! Please allow me to carry your luggage until Tsukimori-san returns!" With the sweeping bow of a true gentleman, Kaji Aoi swiftly rushes over at Mori-san's beckoned call, whisking up Hino's bag in one smiling hand. Mori's was safely tucked in his other one, since the take-charge girl had relieved her adoring boy of his own light luggage, to add to the viola case she had claimed in her own capable hands. She gives her obliging 'servant' a proud power wielding wink at his quick response to her unspoken command, Kaji giggling like a schoolboy in love at his 'shining star's glowing attentions.

Seeing Mori's initiative, and annoyed enough to flex her own muscles, Mizue goes right in his face with a loud 'hmph!', snubbing Tsuchiura by taking claim of her own suitcase and marching into the airport's sliding door entrance, her nose high up in the air. Tsuchiura sighs audibly, throwing his hands up before picking up the remainder of the fallen luggage left for him, his own and Tsukimori's.

"Kaho-senpai?" Placing a comforting hand on Kahoko's wrist, Fuyuumi asks when she walks up to our confused heroine as she waits patiently for Shimizu to find their belongings, but the slothenly boy was too slow and too easily pushed in front of by the other train passengers in their hustle and bustle to claim their own bags. His unmistakable cello case had gone around the conveyor several times already, as Shimizu's eyes roll in his head following its erstwhile course in much the same fashion.

"Put some fire in it, man! They'll never let you in if you don't push, Shimizu! Remember, nice guys finish last when it comes to baggage claim!" Fudou Shoma's low voice laughs at Shimizu's almost comical attempts to remove the circling cello case that were so easily thwarted, but the tortoise speed blonde angel kept valiantly a-trying nonetheless.

"Poor kid." Shoma was the go-getter type and would've knocked down a few stiffs in the way himself. His suitcase, Mio's, and that gorgeous vintage guitar they picked up in that Altstadt music shop were already slung over his back with the aid of some handy straps.

"Huh? Pata-chan? Whassup?" His comment was aimed at his angsty looking next-door neighbor, but Hino Kahoko heard him not, she quite distraught with eyes affixed upon the door of the airport's lobby her Len must have disappeared into. Mio, beside him, bites her lip, squeezing Kaho's hand with friendly reassurance.

"I'm sure Tsu~ki~mori-kun will be right back!" Amou Nami rushes up from behind and nearly strangles Hino by the neck, like a sister would, for she felt they were so close she could almost feel the girl's palpable unsettled pain.

But when Kahoko gives her a lame smile, Nami exchanges a negative shake of the head with Ousaki, who, as if on the same wavelength, was attempting to contact Tsukimori via cell phone, but no one was picking up.

"Maybe he had to go to the bathroom!" Peeking over, Hihara's loud crass voice tries to help with his oh-so-simple explanation.

"Kazuki-san!" Miyabi gives his hand their signaled squeeze, and Hihara then shrugs back at everyone with a nervous giggle that Miyabi soon joins in, happily holding Hihara's trumpet case and extra packed snack baggie as Hihara lifts up high her baggage as well as his own. Miyabi may have been chiding him, but the sparkle in her eyes trumpeted her joy at having the lively young man as her own.

"There are far more artful ways to address such a tentative subject, Hihara." Yunoki, as he was, holding nothing but his flute case with an elegant air, was back in his haughty affluent young man mode again, to everyone's relief.

Especially Ayano's, as she gasps when Yunoki suddenly mentally shapeshifts, and abandons his genteel behavior to grab her surprised wrist with one hand, and her tight corseted waist with his other arm snaking around pervasively, startling her.

And she liked it that way, rewarding his expectant face with an uncharacteristic smirk and raised eyebrow, along with licking her lips attractively.

_Artful, indeed._

Yunoki pleasantly relishes in his surprise for the day.

_And then there will be tomorrow to look forward to…_

Yunoki wraps that arm around her waist possessively, simultaneously flashing Kanazawa-sensei his most attentive innocent smile as they join walking alongside.

"There are? I can think of a few less 'artful' myself." Kanazawa-sensei comes up from behind them was a luggage cart, pushing his, Caterina, Yunoki and Ayano's luggage upon it masterfully. It was decided that it was the least he could do for this still too frail young man, for Yunoki wasn't quite ready for much physical stress. Before the older teacher would allow Yunoki to carry anything heavy, it would take a lot of recovery and a lot more of his chicken soup.

"Oh yes. I know one. 'He had to spend a penny.''' With only his rucksack carefully hung on his shoulder, Shimizu Keiichi finally appears with his innocent pearls of golden wisdom.

Everyone stops still in their tracks, their mouths dropping in shock or sniggering in delight at Seiso angel's somewhat unbecoming normal youth's street lingo.

"That'll do it every time, Keiichi."

Snappy retort—and hardwon cello—in hand at his senpai's crass words, Etou Kiriya always had Shimizu Keiichi's back. He had been the one to help his elder classman locate and push through the throngs of passengers enough to rescue Shimizu's beloved cello case to deliver into the hands of its rightful owner at last.

"And I was told that I was bad in public. Sheesh, you guys, we might not want to be seen with the likes of you in front of strangers." Shoma teases the red-faced trumpeter and the oblivious blonde angel.

"You gotta learn some class." The brash navy blue haired young man enjoyed rubbing it in, Mio and Miyabi giggling as his congenial older brother joins the frolicking fray.

"Class? Like you have, Shoma?" Fudou Yosuke had enough sense of humor to smirk incredulously at his not-so-classy little brother as he gentlemanly claims his and Nao's suitcases from the revolving rack.

"Nah! You've got more than enough of that frilly stuff for both of us, Aniki." Shoma chuckles as he watches his pale brother's thin weak arms nearly give out until Sergeant Kobayashi's sturdy ones support the bottom of his heavy case, taking half its weight to an embarrassed Yosuke's chagrin.

"You catch me. I catch you. This relationship works both ways." The serious low voiced girl whispers meaningfully in his gratified ear. Yosuke in turn, chuckles as their hands intertwine over the luggage handle. He was innerly jubilant that his much sought after iron maiden was finally acknowledging their relationship. He truly believed now that luck smiled upon romance on European shores, indeed as tried and true as his longsuffering love for her.

Flexing his own properly working muscles, Shoma shows off by lifting both Mio and her bag onto a roving luggage cart and rocketing them all forward at reckless speed.

"Whee!" Mio never felt so right in her adoring gaze back up at her sturdy hunk as he laughs along with her, blowing from his face the colored feathers he given her last night that she had tied around her neck, tickling him as the cart speeds towards the airport front counter.

"What are the rest of you waiting for? Let's proceed inside—but in a more stately manner, please." Kira Akihiko knew nothing of teasing, fun and thrills, nor the mechanics of a young girl's heart.

Heck, he could barely manage his own!

Kira pulls his signature trenchcoat over his shoulders, with his austere luggage and Tsuzuki's simple elegant bag in tow, attempting some semblance of order amidst the childish hijinks of the younger set, as he exchanges a nod with Mari.

As a group trying not to be too conspicuous, the rest of them stride into the SalzburgInternationalAirport's lobby. With each step forward towards her sad destination, Hino Kahoko grips her duffel bag and its precious occupant closely, the blue diamond studded silver ring entwined with a decorative cord of gold sparkling upon her finger assured her that her knight in shining armor, Tsukimori Len, would make everything right. _I believe in you..._

* * *

"Bitte, gnädige Frau, gibt es keinen Weg, dass ich auf diesem Flug einen Sitz sichern kann? Zweitklassiges, ebenes Zwischendeck? Der Manager, mit dem ich beim Frontschreibtisch am Telefon sprach, versicherte mir diesen Morgen, wegen etwas Absage, eine Karte. Bestimmt werde ich jeden Preis bezahlen, verdoppeln Sie sich, verdreifachen Sie sich, welch Sie verlangen. Weisen Sie mir bitte nur eine Karte für Japan muss es haben!"

_["Please, madam, is there no way I can secure a seat upon this flight? Second-class, even steerage? The manager I spoke with at the front desk on the phone assured me of a ticket this morning, due to some cancellation. Surely I'll pay any price—double, triple, whatever you require. Just please assign me a ticket to __Japan__. I must have it!"]_

In fluent German language, Tsukimori Len's usually calm, cool and collected voice was sounding rather desperate as the team comes up to the ticket window, hearing his indecipherable sparring match with the big boned woman behind the airline ticket counter.

"Nein! Nein! Nein! Entschuldigen Sie—Herr—aber als ich erzählte, dass Sie, Herr Tsukimori, es gibt keine Absagen. Der Manager irrte sich. Sie können mir nicht mehr Geld bezahlen, für dort ist kein  
ticketsremaining. Ich habe Doppelgänger, verdreifachen Sie sich, überprüfte für Sie. Neun es gibt keine Absagen für diesen Flug verfügbar. Mir tut es leid. Vielen Danke, Guten Morgen, Herr Tsukimori."

_["No! No! No! Do pardon me, Mr. Tsukimori, but as I told you— sir— there are no cancellations. The manager was mistaken. You cannot pay me any more money, for there are no tickets remaining. I have double— triple— checked. No, there are no cancellations available for this flight. Thank you very much. Good morning, Mr. Tsukimori."]_

And with that finalized statement, the cold clinical big blonde Brunhilda type of Germanic woman clicks her heels together, slaps shut her keypad drawer and nods for the annoying foreigner to leave her ticket window, _Beeilung! _once and for all after arguing with him over nonexistent tickets promised for over 10 minutes now.

"Tsukimori?" Tsuchiura plunks the young musician's luggage he has been carting around at the frustrated man's feet.

Tsukimori gives a sigh as his eyes meet Kahoko's across the crowded lobby with a saddened look of apology in them that soon turn back to the gate window with steely determination.

"Entschuldigen. Mir tut es leid, gnädige Frau. Wann der nächste Flug nach Tokyo?" Len grits his teeth and asks the same woman for a slightly different destination.

_["Excuse again. Pardon me, kind madam. When is the next flight to __Tokyo__?"]_

"Bitte."

_["Wait."]_ She was beyond annoyed now, attending to other more pressing matters on her desk.

"Lassen Sie uns sehen... heute Abend bei 6 PM."

_["Let us see... tonight at __6 PM__."] _The older lady finally answers after a punishing pause of several minutes, her German accent snappy.

"Geldstrafe. Dann würde ich, um heute Abend eine einfache Karte für den Flug zu kaufen—"

_["Fine. Then I would like to purchase a one-way ticket for that flight this evening—"]_ Tsukimori begins to take out his wallet.

"So traurig. Alle Karten werden schon gebucht. Als ich vorher angab, verkauften alle Flüge nach Japan vollständig aus. Es gibt nicht mehr. Guter morning, Herr!"

_["So sad. All tickets already are booked. As I stated previously, all flights to __Japan__ are sold out completely. There are no more. Good morning, Sir!"] _The annoyed woman says to a crestfallen Tsukimori, pounding at her computer keys almost vindictively, with only a waved hand dismissing the young man from her window.

"But—why?!" Tsukimori quietly exclaims in shock, the woman only ignoring his distress, rolling her eyes.

"It's because of that huge concert going on this weekend at the Budokan. I think the band's name has something to do with the American Wild West—Cowboys—no, **_Rodeo_** something or the other, I seem to recall hearing someone say."

Trying to sound totally disinterested, though knowing more than he owned, Etou Kiriya chimes in his two cents drolly, his wiry arms crossed as he leans his long thin frame casually against the pamphlet booth where Shouji was picking out a few (_hundred_!) scenic brochures of their land of pure beauty, ogling a stolen glance at her pretty fianc_e_every now and then, too.

"GRANRODEO!" Kaji Aoi and Hihara Kazuki cry out in unison the name of the melodious rock unit that was sweeping over Japan as the pair give each other high-fives, both bursting out in chorus of one of the famed group's most iconic signature songs all boys had to love:

_"ONCE AND FOREVER! Yeah!" _Kaji busts into the lead singer of the rock group's cool dance moves, giving a plaintive attempt to mimic the uber talented GR soloist's vocal skills and hip swaying action as seen at many an attended concert.

_"Forever!" _Hihara air guitars, doing his best to do the backup harmonizing like the GR legendary bandmaster/creator/songwriter genius who dreamed the dream for Rodeo boys and Rodeo girls everywhere.

"Hey! Hey! Hey, gang! Have you guys all conveniently forgotten that Dysnomia's gonna be there, too?" A slighted Shoma puts hands on hips indignantly.

"You ready for the big time this weekend, Pata 2? We're the warm-up group for GranRodeo that day." Fudou Shoma reminds everyone of his own up and coming band that little Takatou Mio was now thrust into the spotlight thereof. The small-framed girl only manages to nod happily in spinning motions as her head was still revolving after being sped around the airport lobby until she was dizzy. The girl was still fervently clutching her Sho-chan's guitar case for dear joyous life.

"That's right! Your band's the warm up at the Budokan! I bought tickets early before they sold out! I'm **so **excited I could just **pop**!" Kaji brainlessly shakes his overly ecstatic bottom half like an excited kid with the promise of games and candy at a party.

"And just wait 'til you see the surprise that Dysnomia's planning for the night's interlude part in between the main performances!" Shoma excitedly conveys before the growing crowd of onlookers.

"Surprise?! Surprise?! Mio LOVES surprises! What is it? What is it! What is it!?" Mio clings to Shoma's self-promoting arm enthusiastically, beside herself to think of being some small part of that big stage with him.

"All right, I'll tell you, because you're gonna be in it now too." Shoma scruffs Mio's eager head fondly, meeting her large saucers of eyes as he speaks with a grin.

"Since Dysnomia's been chosen to do the warm-up for every band playing from this weekend until the end of December, me and Anegawa and the other guys in the band came up with a new song to rock cheer into people's hearts during the Christmas season. We called it "25 days to Dysnomia!" and we've got a way cool pre-Christmas gig that anyone's ever seen to go with it!" Shoma's voice, full of zeal, had a way of capturing the attention of everyone who heard him, Mio rapturously hanging on every single word coming from his smiling wide mouth.

"Dysnomia's band members are gonna have on reindeer antlers, and I'm gonna wear this cool plush red Santa suit I just picked up at a  
secondhand thrift store. Sure, it's not an Armani or some other swanky outfit my Aniki would wear, but all white fur trimmed—I'm gonna rock the house in it!" Shoma winks one eye, his descriptive adjectives of his new ensemble painting the full picture for them, even as he chews on a french fry (or two) from the striped cup he had bought full of the fried potato snack from the airport lunch counter.

"We're gonna have that fake snow stuff fall at the end of the performance, and a light show of a sleigh flying across the night sky as we finish playing, too! It's gonna be the best halftime show ever!" As he rapidly speaks like a nonstop bullet train, the navy blue haired boy's enthusiasm builds with each expanding fun time offer, the born showman taking his audience there with him to soaring heights.

Takatou Mio especially, his girl riding upon those fiery wings of anticipation, up to the tippy-top of his imaginative world filled with music, light and fun so she might never come back down again. Seeing how she shared in his excitement, Shoma suddenly scoops up her hand with a brilliant idea.

"You wanna be a reindeer too? Or maybe a snow angel, or—Oh! I know! You can be ! Santa's old lady wif—" Again running off at the mouth before his brain clicked in with a term he was far from comfortable uttering in real life, Shoma almost doesn't catch his beet red faced flub that makes him almost as cherry as the Santa suit he had vividly depicted.

Fortunately for him, it all goes over Mio's little head. Well...mostly over.

"Mio's Koibito is **Shoma** Claus!" She cries out her version of the silly holiday tune, unashamedly squeezing the hand of a spazzed out older boy still averting his eyes and now blushing madly. She then frantically whips out her newly obtained maracas and shakes them about in the sporadically rhythmic beats of her skipping heart, to which Hihara and Kaji break out simultaneously into a GR inspired "Sea of Stars" ditty her maracas play perfect background to.

"We're gonna have so much fun together! Dysnomia's Santa gig sounds super!" Hihara smiles brightly, giving Kaji a big thumbs up. Both Rodeo boys, spurred on by Shoma's highly anticipated event foretelling and Mio's happy playing, dizzily continue to dance wildly, sing loudly and generally be merry in noisemaking rhythm, in their vain attempts to mimic the rock group's sleek style.

"Ignore them, please." Mori Manami rolls her eyes with a condescending smile aimed at her kiddish beau and his 'hip-hop'n roll' buddy startling the European airport customers and disturbedforeigners passing by with appalled faces.

"Wow! You guys are great! You should go on stage yourselves!" Miyabi, on the other hand, was youthful enough herself to applaudenthusiastically the silly duo's shameless performance before all the world to see.

"Yeah. The one leaving for parts unknown." Tsuchiura sarcastically vents, then glances as if expecting Mizue's forced look of disapproval from where she was sitting several empty seats purposely placed between them in the SalzburgAirport departure hall.

But, to his delight, the girl truly laughs at his double entendered joke instead.

"Gladyou at least like my jokes." Tsuchiura mumbles as he tries to shake off his unease, but the cold shoulder from Mizue bothered him more than he cared to admit as she sobers her mouth to be pursed again, her eyes diverting away, bored.

Just to fill the silence, he tries to think of something to say that wouldn't set her off again, as his eyes note scenes in the airport café with blasé interest: Etou taking a big bite from the dripping ice cream cone in Shouji's hand; Fudou-sensei sharing an artistically cut apple slice with Kobayashi; and Kanayan lovingly feeding his wife a spoonful of syrupy smothered cheesecake.

"Boyfriends don't, you know." Tsuchiura finally states out of the blue, Mizue's feigned inattention snapping over to him in confusion.

"Don't what?" She asks, incredulously curious of what the big jerk had to say from where she was, safely some seats away.

"'Need their space.'" He honestly looks her straight in the eye.

"'_What piece of work is a man?'"_ The big jock concedes his jab at marital bliss with a conciliatory sheepish smirk at himself, following it up with a Shakespearean quote that seemed to fit his bill right about now, that he knew she'd appreciate.

And boy, does she. Everything needed to be said is pardoned in that simple recount in Mizue's widening, enlightened eyes.

_My Ryo knows Hamlet. My boyfriend recites Shakespeare. _

Mizue falls in love with Tsuchiura Ryotaro all over again as she swiftly launches herself to crawl bodily over the connected chairs and dive towards him with the grace of a ballerina, the caring of a nurse, holding his arm down with the ferocity of a soccer goalie.

She grabs his muscular shoulder (the good one) and kisses him squarely on the shocked lips with all the passion of her poetic soul ablaze with love for him that he soon, to her raptures, just as powerfully reciprocates.

Sure, Ryo in his coarseness would never be her ideal Keats, Byron nor, alas, her adored Lord Tennyson, but he was the road to where every line of poetry in her true heart intersected. Mizue contemplates such thoughts of fancy in a reverie as she sets his imprisoned arm, leaned on shoulder, and captured lips free.

"Wow." Tsuchiura was now displaying a quirky smile, Mizue sharing in its realm where all is forgiven as she first makes a quick check of his shoulder wound's dressing, then springs up to lift him to his feet.

"Here. Carry my bag, you Big Dummy." Mizue kisses Tsuchiura's embarrassed yet pleased cheek, as he turns a shade redder than the blinking terminal lights outside the airport window.

_A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool_…

* * *

"Grand...Rodeo? A rock unit has tied up all these foreign flights to Japan on me?" Tsukimori Len's handsome features fall, he feeling quite beaten by some unknown anomaly to his classically trained ears as his tongue distastefully wraps around the band's oddly titled moniker.

"Oh, I think their music sounds well orchestrated." Even classical Shimizu was not untouched by this musical phenomenon, as the boy composer lowers his trained ear to listen in on the rock music blaring now over Kaji's whipped out iPod that these 'Rodeo boys' were presently rocking along with.

"Oh. And his voice sounds just like yours, Tsukimori-senpai." In his insightful ignorance yet again, Shimizu makes note of the lead singer he had never heard before, but was sincere enough to critique honestly any form of musical performance.

Tsukimori's jaw drops aghast at the unimaginable insinuation of he lowering his high standards to slink across the stage decadently in such flashy dress and long wild hair styles as the singer of that 'Granrodeo', who was currently obliging the drooling Rodeo girls in his audience, on the concert video and those here at the airport as well, Kaji's iPod gaining quite a crowd of intrigued onlookers by now...

But back to the pressing matter at hand, Tsukimori shakes his head to be rid of all this superfluous nonsense distracting him from his vital mission, as yet thwarted.

"So now what, Tsukimori-kun?" It was as if Ousaki Shinobu was reading his mind, perhaps the closeness of their friendship, being roommates these two years that gave Ousaki insight into Len's pain. Perhaps it was also the man himself having the desire now to switch out his own ticket of return to their lonely Vienna abode to instead take him back to Yokohama so he could make up lost time with Nami, but it was far too late with all the concert driven reservations and sold out airplane seating.

"I do not know. All I know is that I must not disappoint my Kahoko. Not now, not ever. You should be the first to know my news, Ousaki-senpai. After all, you'll be affected by my decision somewhat, more than anyone." Tsukimori looks the kindly red haired man in the understanding eye.

"I'm leaving the Conservatory. Forgive me for abandoning our shared apartment arrangement, but my heart feels compelled to return home with Kahoko. Please give Mrs. Heifmann my gratitude for all she's done for me over these past two years. And, if I may burden your friendship a bit more, perhaps you can send the remainder of my personal effects on, because...I'm not returning with you to Vienna." The sagacious young man may have been at a loss presently for an appropriate action, but he truly believed now that the course of true love could not be deterred if one's heart had noble intentions.

And Tsukimori Len fully intended to live for his beloved Kahoko from this day forward, Kahoko running to his welcoming embrace, her eyes filling with shining tears when she realizes all her Len was willing to give up, just to be at her side…


	74. Chapter 74 - Unforgettable Memories

**Chapter 74: "Unforgettable Memories"**

"I know a way, you know!" A small voice echoes amidst the tinkling sound of bells-and magical musical notes-as, escaping from Hino's duffel bag, Lili appears amidst the Salzburg Airport's lobby.

"And so do you, Kira Akihiko, you know! I saw what you did at the other ticket window just now, you know!" Lili makes a glimmering bee line for the dark man, who had been content to stand unseen in the background up to now, while the others wring their minds and hands for some answer to Tsukimori Len's and Hino Kahoko's imminent problem of separation...

"Don't indulge it with a response and it will go away..." Kira Akihiko mutters sourly to himself, averting his eyes purposely from looking to where Lili was floating before him.

"I myself am not an 'it,' Kira Akihiko, you know! You can hear Argento Lili, the music Fata and I can hear you, too, Kira Akihiko, the grumpy man, you know! I heard the golden cord between Hino Kahoko crying out to not be separated from Tsukimori Len ever again and **SO DO YOU**, you know!" Lili pushes an angry finger right to Kira's prominent forehead with each emphasized word.

"I also can see as well as hear, and I saw you in Vienna, visiting the Vienna Conservatory's Director, who just happens to have had a grandfather who knew your grandfather, you know! I heard you pulling some musical strings to arrange a scholarship for Hino Kahoko to come to Vienna and be in Tsukimori Len's class because you **DO** believe in the Violin Romance truly, you know! I heard you live up to your grandfather's promises that you really do love music in your heart, Kira Akihiko! You never fooled me, you know! And it makes me proud, you know!?" Lili's angry face turns into a wobbly mouthed, almost tearful smile, as he wipes his tiny fairy eyes full of tears of pride at this descendant who resembled that great man who had saved him, all those sixty-some years ago. More than any other, and now in more ways than even Lili imagined, this cold fish had turned benefactor anew.

The Seiso gang holds their collected breath looking back and forth in suspense at the unexpected scene.

"Are you quite finished, Argento?" Kira speaks after a long pause, addresing Lili before them for the first time to everyone's astonishment. And to even more perplexity and wonder, he pulls out a wad of airline tickets for everyone and holds them out to each of the Seiso students, including a bewildered Tsukimori Len.

Tsukimori looks down at the ticket to find his name already typed in place of Kira Akihiko's crossed out one-and not only that, but the ticket was upgraded to a two-way return.

"Director?" Tsukimori asks, tilting his head with the flabbergasted query.

"It's entirely up to you two, Tsukimori-kun, Hino-kun. If you utilize the return tickets, the scholarship to the Conservatory and this opportunity to give to the world of music two promising violinists that you have the potential to be, side by side, it's your choice. I have done everything in my power to aid you both. My duty as caretaker of this 'La corda d'oro' is now out of my hands and in yours to decide your own musical paths that the golden cord has blessed. Good luck in your future endeavors."

Without any further ado, Hino Kahoko flies to Len's grateful arms. They look to each other with such hopeful joy at the chance bestowed upon them-to be together in all things. She vows to herself to make her music worthy of wonderful Director Kira's belief in herself and her dream. Her eyes were so full of that gratitude, she was about to dash up and hug the unapproachable dark man next. However, with his inspiring speech finished, without need nor want for thanks, Kira Akihiko turns on his heel and begins to walk away, suitcase in hand.

"Whew! That was quite a mouthful for him." Etou tips his imaginary hat, if he had had one, at his uncle's moral fortitude.

"You said it, kid." Kanayan chuckles, always believing all the while that his former kohai still had a heart deep down.

"Director! Akihiko-san! Wait...!" Tsuzuki Mari's eyes brim over with tears of pride, much like Lili's. She rushes towards him, with a question in her smile when he pauses his gait.

"Mari, I was remiss in providing you with your own ticket. Forgive me." There was something somewhat uncertain his normally utterly confident voice that caused Mari's heart to soar with...anticipation...as the said ticket passes both their hands.

_[Mari Tsuzuki, one way to Tokyo Japan Airport. 20 November, 2012, 8:45 AM Departure]_

Yet something further was peeking out beneath it.

_[Mari Tsuzuki, one way to Paris, France Airport. 20 November, 2012, 9:15 AM Departure]_

She looks up at him with startled eyes. _Two tickets?_

"Paris?" Mari's soft, musical voice was as lilting as it was disbelieving.

"Accept whichever you prefer." Kira offhandedly averts his eyes, in embarrassment, though something inside causes him to return her steady gaze with a soft smile. "I thought it would be nice to see Paris again, this time of year. The scenic Christmas illumination on the Eiffel Tower are quite breathtaking. I would gladly welcome your company...Mari...that is, if you're interested in accompanying me." Kira swallows his cold exterior, giving Mari a rare, inviting gaze.

"I would love to, Akihiko-san." Mari whispers, holding up the Paris ticket shyly. But her besotted eyes then fly open when she sees the big clock on the wall ticking down to the 8:45 Tokyo plane departure behind the director's shoulder.

"Oh! Was it too difficult for you to change the name on your ticket?" She asks rather frantically to Kira's frowning puzzlement.

"Not at all." He shakes his confused head. "What name would you like substituted?" Kira hesitantly asks, as Mari, thankfully, hands him the ticket to Tokyo.

"Ousaki Shinobu, if you please."

Kira's dark eyebrow raises in an uncommon expression of surprise, bewilderment and then...enlightenment at his companion's words with one look into her decided eyes.

"I suppose I won't have to be finding a new roommate in Vienna then, eh, Tsukimori-kun?" Ousaki Shinobu pleasantly teases, as he, Tsukimori Len, and the rest of the Seiso gang were about to part ways, while Kanayan and Caterina were busy saying their goodbyes, giving kisses and getting baby name suggestions at the final terminal.

Amou Nami's flashing camera takes lasting memories of their ending moments in Austria with their famous operatic friends. So that left Ousaki in the background, where he was always content to be, watching his vivacious beauty hard at work, doing what she loved to do best.

"Well..." Hino Kahoko replies, a bit coy and shy at once, batting her eyes at Len, for she and Tsukimori did not yet have the chance to discuss a wedding date yet. Considering this new opportunity that Director Kira had granted them, the sky was the limit.

And Kahoko had waited patiently for this particular blue sky to open before her, for a very, very long time. With renewed eager longing spurred on by a wonderful dream, she gazes upon her adored Len's stunning handsome face.

"Oh, I see...! Perhaps it is I who will be leaving the House Doebling before then, anyway. You see, in the near future, I'm going to be visiting much more of the world myself, I believe. According to Nami-san's correspondence class schedules, that is. Still, I am glad you'll have each other now, and at least Tsuchiura-kun and Sakimoto-san will be joining you in Vienna soon, for her hospital work and for his Beethoven Competition. But I know I will miss you all-wherever I go, I'll only regret we didn't have more time to spend together." Kind Ousaki was a bit too sentimental for his own good. Tsukimori and Hino share a look, as the redhead reaches over and gives the bespectacled man a big wet kiss on his blushing cheek.

"I will certainly be in attendance on your big day! Call me or email me or...tell Nami-san when it is and-" Ousaki nervously begins to feel pangs of loneliness. His social heart loved every minute of this past week and a half, with his beloved friends and fellow Seiso alumni again, that he liked to call his 'Corda' family.

As the troupe of them begin to check their bags through customs and redeem their tickets for the ride, Ousaki was terribly sad to see them all go, one by one, with a mere wave goodbye. For who knew how long it would be until he saw them again? Especially Nami...

Ousaki's heart breaks at the realization that that airplane would soon be taking his bright-eyed girl to some distant sky, and it would be some time before they saw each other again. He would soon be the only one left in Vienna once the Kanazawa's Opera troupe moved on to other foreign soils on their worldwide tour.

_Nami-san...I will miss you..._

"Ousaki-kun!" The breathless voice comes from an unlikely source and Ousaki turns to see a heaving over from the exertion of her racing through the airport Tsuzuki Mari, holding out a slip of paper towards him.

"I find _huff_ I won't be _huff_ requiring this anymore _huff_ either..." She finishes with a smile full of inner beauty, gazing squarely into Ousaki's astonished eyes. She realizes that this chapter of her life was truly at a close, for the unrequited feelings of before, were so different now that a new, more fulfilling story had just begun to unfold within her heart. As the pages turned, the new missive introduced the form of a tall, dark and mysterious stranger to the emotion of love himself into her heart's hollow place.

_Let's write the next chapter of my life's book together...Akihiko-san..._

In friendship and symbolism both, in her determined eyes, Tsuzuki Mari presses the ticket into Ousaki's unknowing hand, meaningfully nodding to the oblivious man with the crystal clear glasses as she shares a knowing smile with the golden girl who had become the window to his soul.

Amou Nami somehow sensed her name silently being called. She felt that her Shinobu was missing her, as much as she would him, for the remainder of her term.

"Thank you, Tsuzuki-san. You've always been a true friend." With a friendly pat of his former classmate's hand, Ousaki, in his cluelessness of Mari Tsuzuki's past feelings for him. He never once imagined the dark secrets of her affections for him all these years since their schooldays, but it no longer mattered.

That part if Mari Tsuzuki's heart has sincerely left its pining for the gentle OB and now has soared to even higher heights as the dark Director himself appears at the terminal awaiting his travelling companion to join him.

Akihiko-san's commanding voice was full of a softness now that none of the gang ever suspected he even possessed.

"Is this all your luggage, Mari?" On unabashed first name basis, he takes her marked suitcase from the rack in his other empty hand.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She smiles up at him sweetly.

"Hino-san, may I?" Mari turns to the girl with the whisper, placing a hand on our heroine's duffel..

"Umm...yes! I'm sure he would love the ride." Hino whispers back conspiratorically, handing over to Mari the bag oh-so-gently.

"I'll bring him back to you in one piece. I promise." With a nervous smile, Mari uncharacteristically gives Kahoko a warm kiss on the cheek and a hug.

"Take your time enjoying yourselves, Tsuzuki-san! I'm pretty sure you're going to have **lots** of fun now!" Hino giggles into the no longer too stiff and abrasive woman's thick shock of curled hair as the pair chuckle together as true friends at last.

After the two part, Mari is pleasantly surprised to be embraced farewell by each member of the Girl Power group in turn as if she were one of their own.

Heartened by the bond of love and friendship through music that this journey had forged with its golden cord surrounding them all, welcoming her into the Seiso 'corda' family. Mari smiles as she turns from her past to her future with no trepidation.

"Shall we go, Akihiko-san? It appears our flight to Paris leaves shortly." She points to the blinking lights that signalled the aircraft's departure to the famed European destination. Duffel bag firmly secured on her left arm, she bravely links her right hand under Kira's arm and leans her head to the nook of his shoulder.

"Heh...? Looks like your old unc took a page out of your own playbook, Etou-kun. They have plenty of horse drawn carriages in gay Paris, so watch out." Kanayan mischievously teases both nephew and uncle, giving the teen an unwelcomed noogie over his gorgeous mane of unruly wine-colored hair.

"You'd better curb that tongue of yours, Kanazawa-senpai...or should I said, 'Kanazawa-papa?'" Kira Akihiko gets a lick of his own in, thrown over his retreating back at his oldest firend, who first twists his lip, then smiles.

Etou Kiriya feels justified at least by this, in return for Kanayan treating him like a petulant child, that of course, he was not. Instead, the sixteen-year-old pulls Shouji Megumi even closer until she was nearly atop his lap where they they sat on a bench waiting. Her hand was contentedly being warmed in his jacket pocket, as if to pacify his injured feelings with his new beloved 'possession' with a pouty expression on his cute face all the while. Shouji enjoys the sudden nuzzling attention immensely, and eyes play music in each other's eyes. His little sweetheart rewards her Kiriya with willing kisses and caresses. Etou drinks them in greedily, hidden behind the folds of his furry hood, so no one else could see the passion of romance in first bloom.

Since last night's magical introduction to it, Kiriya surprised even himself to find that he not only didn't dislike the new sensation but he was rather skilled at this previously unfamiliar subject known as 'kissing.' After all, when Etou Kiriya applied himself to this task, as he did everything else in his young life-it was with intensity, much to Shouji's delight. Kiriya's kisses were definitely worth losing a little breath over and she somehow felt, for the first time in a long time, her lungs freshly invigorated by her love's steadying inner strength.

Their sweet little tableau was overlooked though, as the rest of the stunned disbelieving spectators watch the dark Director lead the calm woman on his arm down the airport and towards the terminal directed to Paris, taking their adult mood with them as they fade from sight.

"Oh!? Tsuzuki-san likes Director Kira?" Ousaki whispers in astonishment to Amou, standing beside him, of the scene they had just witnessed in hushed tones, as the pair in question leave.

"You really **DO** need those glasses, don't you, Shino-bunny?" Amou teases with a sarcastic, smug smirk. That had been 'old news' to her, so she instead wraps her arms around the daft, but lovely man's neck and pulls him into a loving embrace and smooching kiss on his surprised cheek. "Did I ever tell you I love a man in glasses?" She murmurs contentedly under his gaze down at her.

"I am grateful for that." Ousaki smiles back at her, beneath those amicably shy eyed 'peepers' that he adjusts in pleased embarrassment.

"Come on. Let's get you through screening handsome. I wouldn't mind giving you that pat down myself." With a wry wink, she leads him down the parallel corridor, taking charge in her well-intentioned, bossy way.

Waving at him as he's screened, there and then, he watches her golden waves bounce up and down before him, reminicing of this romantic adventure his bright-eyed reporter had started the ball rolling for them all. Ousaki Shinobu knows for absolutely certain that Amou Nami is that someone he has always longed to meet in his life. She was truly that someone who would make unforgettable memories come alive and he vowed to aspire for nothing more than to travel alongside her as she does, wherever she goes, he wanted to share in her story. Their exciting ride would be always together upon their memories' picturesque, music-filled lanes.


	75. Chapter 75 - Crescendo of Love

**Chapter 75: **"**Crescendo of Love "**

After waving a cheery 'goodbye' in the airport to their beloved sensei Kanayan and Caterina and the new musical note growing within her, as the two opera stars return to Vienna for their final operatic tour for a while, the Seiso students begin to board their flight back to Japan. Their baggage had been finally checked through security, their suspiciously shaped instrument cases well inspected, despite many masculine grumbles of trampled liberties, overlooked international rights and ticklish tummies, all left under the watchful eyed chaperones of mature Fudou Yosuke and responsible Shinobu Ousaki.

And so the Corda family, minus their once austere Director and prim Tsuzuki-san, but plus one adorable furry stowaway our wily group of girl spies managed to smuggle on board in his place, tucked safely away with a full bottle of warm milk in Shimizu Keiichi's carry-on knapsack Fuyuumi Shoko was cuddling all the while, was finally on their way home. The cellist boy angel leaned asleep on her shoulder with gentle breaths and the little kitten's soft purring on her lap made quite lovely music duets in quiet reflection for the girl placed in between the two who pledged her forever to watch over both delicate gifts from Above from this day forward.

It was the perfectly completed sentiment to a perfectly completed journey, quite fitting the ten youthful couples, experiencing the first tender steps in the glorified throes of love, as they board the airline that would take them back home, a happier and more fulfilled lot, with all their hopes and dreams for a brilliant future far more apparent than any of them had envisioned just a week or so ago.

Their concert at the prestigious Vienna Opera House was such a stunning success that their first taste of fame in the musical world was a pleasant one indeed. Each of their promising careers in music was unfolding with bright prospects, as were the more soulful pursuits that concerned their all-important hearts as well.

Love was no longer the unrequited ache that several of their hearts had held secretively for some time. It was now a melodious measure in perfect rhythm of harmony and melody that fell from their lips softly in time to one another, as each of the couples whispered, teased, smiled and embraced, side by side, cozily billing and cooing along the romantic flight homeward bound.

Near the front row, in seats reserved for another pair now rearranged, Ousaki Shinobu couldn't stop feeling the urge to pinch himself with his talented musical fingers. It was only a few short hours ago he was sadly looking forward to spending yet another day, another meal, another night, alone at the House Doebling, performing to no audience his solitary violin. He had an inkling that Tsukimori-kun was on the move and had already psyched himself for a painful separation from his young friend's departure, as well as the other part of his soul, in Amou Nami.

But the thought of the loss of Nami-san's tenacity and vigor for life from his world again was ripping the very breath from his lungs, though kind, unselfish Ousaki never would have complained outwardly. And then when Tsuzuki-san offered her former classmate her own ticket—Ousaki was gratified beyond words—words that his Nami-san was usually at no loss for. The man in peepers peers over her rapid fire reporting on her tablet of the gang's finale to their European story, content to have the ace journalist afford him a glance every now and then, Amou Nami going one better and sneaking her unassuming hunkster a swift peck on the beet red cheek as blushing reward for his infinite patience.

No longer just a droning sound akin to that engine noise of the lofty aircraft he was in an aft back row of, Tsuchiura Ryotaro finds himself actually enjoying listening to Sakimoto Mizue's alliterative poetic chatter as she points over his injured shoulder, pausing fpr a tender healing rub, back towards the familiar Untersberg peaks growing quickly more and more distant against the noon horizon through the viewscape of the airplane's window. Mizue was so glad she came now, to be part of this group of friends in their benevolent hope to reunite one member's separated love. For, crossing some romantic expanses of their own along the way, she and Ryo were closer for it too, knowing they would next return to chase their futures set to his piano chords in Vienna as _Bärchen_ (sweethearts) at long last.

Across the center aisle, Shouji Megumi had been torn between gazing out through her own window seat's stunning vista one final time at her land of pure beauty, or gazing at the stunner of a fiancé beside her who purely made this land beautiful for her. Or, option three—fall asleep instead on his sweet-smelling, fur lined hoodie chest. Shouji couldn't be blamed, for last night's excitement of their engagement was thrilling to the point of exhaustion for a young woman in love who hadn't been able to sleep much in her hyper state last night..

_Was that only last night? It seems like forever ago..._Before the plane had traveled many miles from where it started, in quiet _pianissimo_, the light brown head had bent securely restful towards her guy's surprised, yet welcoming shoulder. Etou Kiriya was already comfortable with the thought of always having this lovely girl cozily at his side. He places a musical hand atop his mother's ruby ring now on Megumi's left hand ring finger as if stroking the strings of his violin, proving his confidence in his choice in so many heartfelt ways as he listens to their song,_ Je te Veux,_ on his headphones, pulling Megumi's snoozing body all the more tighter.

In the row in front of them, Hihara Kazuki was so busy trying to simultaneously tune in the correct frequency for the in-flight movie, chew on the contents of a bag of peanuts provided, and take a chugging swig from each of his collected juice boxes his best friend had beguiled the stewardess into serving the young inexperienced traveler with, that Hihara failed to notice Yunoki Miyabi, hand cupped in adoring chin, ogling his every move. That is, until their squeezed hand signal calls the surprised young man back to Earth, so to speak, his bright eyes as wide as her smile back at him, accumulating into a shared giggle and intertwined dual trumpeting fingers for most of the rest of the trip home as he feeds his girl some of his peanuts, along with the nourishment his effervescent joy.

Yunoki Azuma, well on his way to full recovery, was placed in the seat across the aisle from the pair and was very much aware of this little panorama of sister and best friend playing and teasing and holding hands as sweethearts now. For a split moment he wonders if Grandmother would approve of the unlikely match, the next with genuine pride etching over his flutist's lips, deciding Miyabi was her own self enough to not care. In the third moment Yunoki takes his little sister's affectionate example and collects the hand of the quiet girl at his side in his bony thin ones and gives a gentle squeeze, to Ayano's utter bliss as she boldly meets his eyes, totally without fear and filled with a lifetime of hope.

While pious Shimizu Keiichi and sweet Fuyuumi Shoko were uncharacteristically being devious, making a comical farce of guilty hide and go peep with their precious fuzzy cargo's poking out head every time a stewardess passed in the aisle, Kaji Aoi and Mori Manami were playing a game of cat and mouse themselves parallel to the culpable couple's seating. Bold Mori certainly was exploring just how far her _star_ could cross the bow of her dashing conquistador's ship before causing too big a splash in his waters where viola and piano strings vibrated in consummate rhythm, and many captured wet kisses traversed their mermaid swum seas along this journey.

The young politician's amorous escapades were discreetly viewed with a tad of envy at his daring audacity by one Fudou brother; though the other, more prosaic earthy sibling was unabashedly yucking it up at the golden boy's expense, finding the 'Kaji and Mori Soap Opera Theater' more entertaining than the classic in-flight "Bon Voyage, Snoopy" movie his own Takatou Mio was currently enthralled with on the airplane viewscreen.

After sensing his own girlfriend—_yes, at last, Ma petite ami—_having discomfort in gawking like rubberneckers at the two golden heads bent together for long periods of time, Fudou Yosuke, much more gentlemanly than his loudmouthed, chortling, younger brother, at Kobayashi Nao's unspoken bequest playing on his heart's delicate harp strings, elegantly crosses the aisle to clamp a pair of plane provided earphones over Shoma's curly head until the brash guitarist was forced to pay attention to the Snoopy movie on the center screen. The famous beagle's devilish chuckle and incoherent swearing at the Parisian traffickers soon entices his still at times childish kid brother to join in the merriment along with the small girl soon wrapped up in his belly-laughing, popcorn popping arms.

As he returns to his own seat, an elated Yosuke could see Nao's eyes glowing with something more than gratitude for the pleasant memories of their time spent both in Vienna and then Salzburg, where their tentative relationship developed into an emotion far deeper than he dared hope for before the good fortune of this amazing journey began for them all.

Echoes of sweet words and laughter pervade the airplane's cabin as promises of love thrive as strong as the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Scores of hopes and dreams and plans for the future ahead of each couple's duet plays wondrous notes on bars up and down the scales, unseen to all but to those playing the sweet refrain of their dynamics.

This kind of glorious music was never more clear than in the heart of Hino Kahoko. Her ode to love and joy surpassed any emotion she had ever before known. Her long wait had been rewarded at last. The cause and effect of the object of her jubilant aria was at Kahoko's side.

Tsukimori Len was stoically petting his lady's head in sweet solemnity, for she was tongue-tied with happiness at this fairy tale chance the good Director Kira, along with Lili's blessing, opened for her.

_Imagine! Me! In the Vienna Conservatory..._

"_Whew_!" Kahoko blows a high-pitched deep breath from her lungs as she leans her head against Tsukimori's strong chest.

"The instructors there are very helpful and will certainly aid your musical study." As if sensing her thoughts, for that close they had become, Len offers hopefully, believing more in Hino Kahoko's infinite possibilities when it came to the soul of her violin echoing through him, every time he heard her, all the more.

"Can I really do this, Len? Director Kira, Tsuzuki-san, Kanazawa-sensei, my parents, Lili... you...I don't want to disappoint any of you! All the help and trust and hope you've placed in my playing. Me, with a scholarship to the Vienna Conservatory! With Tsuzuki-san's aid, I have been practicing non-stop, but still...I'll never be as good as you, or any of the other students more deserving to be there. I'll be beginning the spring and summer term in February. It's only three months away! How can I ever play before all the musical world in such an important place as Vienna?"

"Then don't, Kahoko." Len's cool eyes connect with her anxiety-ridden ones.

Kahoko, stunned, gasps at his dis-attached words, until she realizes his eyes were soft and comforting. A wistful smile accompanies the melody of his face, as his beguiling voice plays a gentle harmony.

"I don't wish for you to play for anyone else. Kahoko. Could you be content to play for me alone and no one else? Could you forgive me this selfish whim?" Tsukimori Len apologizes for his possessive feeling over her, but at the same time, he was firm in his need for her entirely. His own musical fingers lace around her trembling chin, stroking her soft cheek with simple sincerity in his patient eyes, in a glance that drew her nearer.

"Oh, Len, of course, that's all I've ever wanted to do! But...wouldn't you, the greatest violin prodigy ever, be ashamed to have a wife on your arm who's such a poor violinist?"

"Kahoko, I don't care what anyone else ever says, nor should you. Your music is more perfect to me than anything all of those famed professionals and experts combined ever made. Your sound, expressing your heart—your pure golden heart, open to the light—is yours alone and means more to me than anything. It is more beautiful than any music I have ever heard or will ever hear. I long to hear your violin strings play for me for the rest of my life, and even longer." He looks her straight in the eye with heartfelt words of a sentimental love that no one would ever believe of cool thoroughbred Tsukimori Len, once upon a time.

Comforting her uncertainties with utter faith, Len's words bring a smile to Kahoko's face.

"Oh, Len, I love you so." Brought on by his tender words, with a sudden passion that carries her out of herself for a moment, Hino throws herself into her love's eager embrace. He caresses her gently, nuzzling her with his cheek, never feeling more complete than when his Kahoko was in his arms.

"And I love you, my Darling. I belong only to you, and you to me. As long as we're together, everything else will fall into place—because there's nothing more I'm certain of in this whole world than you, Kahoko." Len pulls her even closer, more tightly, pressing his forehead to hers with an encouraging smile in her direction.

"Let's marry right away, and not worry for our studies until you're ready. If you still wish it, I may enroll again and attempt for the Kunstler Diploma, in the summer semester at the Conservatory, so we can begin fresh together next year, after we've learned everything there is to know about each other."

Coloring distinctly, he closes his mouth tightly, and blushes at his own unconscious unintended implications. He realizes what he said only after Hino's head shoots up from his chest, with a laughing expression in her big, bright eyes once again.

"Yes, please. There is so much I want you to teach me, Len."

Kahoko touches her fingertip to his unsteady lips, halting his polite apology with her own pink lips as she leans up with a tender, yet passionate kiss.

"Because I am yours forever..." Hino Kahoko whispers in three-quarter time rhythm to her Len's palpitating heart. Every fantasy had come true for her, in this wondrous musical world, in thrills of tender triumph as she glows with s happiness as golden as the unbreakable cord of their neverending Violin Romance's beauteous scores of music in all its various expression and emotion playing accompaniment through the airplane cabin.

The Seiso alumni, past and present, have discovered the joys of their awakened romantic future in fairytale dreams and full blossomed loves for each of their hearts, set to music that promised to endlessly resound across the world's infinite Blue Sky Blue...


	76. Epilogue

**Epilogue:** "**The Dream to Spread Music Around the World"**

Travel through the ether of that same blue sky where one last of our Seiso entourage couples is also touched by the legendary Violin Romance, begun by the kind, benign and benevolent founder of SeisoAcademy, namely Kira Akihiko's grandfather, Kira Yukai.

Kira's generous predecessor had, at a very young age, left his home in Japan to travel the world in search of beautiful music. He found not only inspiration for his violin playing in Vienna, Austria—the cradle of musical achievement—but also something else that would bless his ideal to establish his own music school for generations to come.

And that something still lived on for that ideal of that honorable man. Argento Lili, the musical Fata, who owed his little life all those sixty-plus years ago to Kira Yukai, never forgot the promise he made to the good man who saved him. Lili still kept his first human friend's dream alive, even after Yukai had passed from this world.

Lili swore on his deathbed, with all the more vigor, to continue to 'spread music around the world' as Yukai announced so joyfully his vision on that fated 1947 morn...

* * *

That morning's dew hung heavily on his injured wings and the crisp, cool autumn Austrian wind blew through his tired soul until exhaustion made it impossible for brave Argento Lili, the music Fata, to keep flapping his wings home to Salzburg's hills, where the rest of his fairy clan lived, with the sounds of music echoing in the mountains and streams all around.

The adventurous Fata loved to stretch his wings further than any of the others in search of fun and excitement and the hint of new music—maybe even legendary music—being born. It drew him to Vienna, even on cold, stormy nights. After all, great composers of the past that Lili's own pappy, grandpappy, great-grandpappy, and great-great-grandpappy silently watched over when the humans  
created their music, and lived and worked in Vienna. Schubert, Schumann, Haydn, Liszt—even Mozart himself, all wrote and performed in Vienna in past centuries.

So why wouldn't there be a new composer for Argento Lili to bless his music upon? Just because there was some terrible silly war that really bad men called Nazis made it so hard for Fata to roam freely through the woods and hills without fear, that the elders made an edict to never co-habitate with humans, who didn't 'deserve music's splendor' until they became civilized once again.

But that rule never stopped Lili. No, he was the bravest, wildest, most ingenuitive member of his extensive family. He wanted to explore and discover new music, though it was becoming rarer and rarer these days.

He wanted new compositions as his ancestors before him enchanted, despite the changing world's harsh scenery, where classical music that once reigned supreme among humans was become scarcer to find. Nevertheless, Argento Lili had determined to find at least one sheet of classical music to sing in his soul that day. But when the shops and streets of Vienna were only filled with people who could no longer see the music Fata, because they were so absorbed in their newfangled popular songs and ditties and cares of war, they had become blind to the fairy's very existence.

He had grown sad and listless, tired of searching fruitlessly—so much so that he wandered out into the night when a sudden, tumultuous storm blew the poor little fellow to and fro. He had been chased from his modest awning refuge by a blasted mooncat until his fairy wings were injured to the point where he could no longer fly.

Lying there, hurt, despondent and depressed because he couldn't find one solitary, true-hearted piece of music in all of Vienna that day, for that was what musical Fata thrived upon, Argento Lili was about to give up everything, when...

Peals of a violin's plaintive strains call him back to the land of the living as its high, sweet notes vaguely penetrate Lili's fluttering away subconscious.

"A violinist...you know..." Lili mumbled incoherently to himself, and with a weak smile, began humming along with the instrument's familiar notes playing Franz Schubert's calming, reverent 'Ave Maria.'

Suddenly Lili felt a kind, warm touch on his small shoulder. A gentle hand lifted him from the cold, wet ground he had dazedly escaped to in the dark of night.

With a foreign accent and the words "Daijoubu?" coming from his lips, a dark-haired Asian man with a soft smile was gazing down in concern at Lili's pain-stricken face.

"Oh, excuse me. I am from Japan. Do you speak _Nihongo_? Pardon me—Japanese—little friend?" Twenty-one year old Kira Yukai, in fairly fluent English, save for faint traces of his Asian accent, had been a foreign exchange student who not only majored in violin playing at the Vienna Conservatory, but he truly lived for his music. Even the prejudices of war had been unable to dissuade anyone's belief in his musical genius.

"I speak...the language of anyone who loves music..." Lili said weakly. "You can see me because you truly love music in your heart, you know." Lili's strange, small voice was barely able to be heard in his frail form, but Yukai had quite an ear for anything musical, and he recognized this was a small piece of musical gold, dropped from Heaven into his gracious hands.

"Do not attempt to move, my friend. I am Kira Yukai. I will take you to my warm room and care for you until you are well. Your wings do not look so good, but I know a few things about creatures with delicate wings. I will make you well again." Yukai had a tender nature since he had been a youth in Yokohama's beautiful hills, where he tended to many an injured wild creature. His reward for his tender ministrations on the small animals wounds were not repayable in earthly terms, but to the Lord above, who had given man dominion of His smallest, defenseless creatures in their hour of need, it meant much.

Yukai had an utterly good soul and that was payment in itself. His compensation seemed to be in his gift to not only care for the lesser fortunate than himself, but also to use his gentle hands to speed their recovery with the lilting music his deep heart so loved.

* * *

Days and weeks passed into months. Lili slowly came back from the brink of death, growing to love his generous and benevolent savior. Their friendship deepened as was Lili's gratitude for not only his life, but the discovery of Yukai's love for music gave the fairy, faith in mankind again.

The day finally came when he could travel alongside Yukai to visit the Dommusikverein und Mozarteum music society on his way home to his beloved Salzburg. That was where Yukai glimpsed his own search for legendary music in the inspiration of an ideal that took shape as his _kokoro_'s heartfelt dream.

They stopped at the Zerturglinstict Für Mozartforschung, which was a cultural institute established to support gifted musicians in their quest to find within themselves their own skills and spread music around the world. Students there were playing Elgar's 'Salut d'Amour' soulfully in the background when they arrived.

"Look at this wonderful place, Lili, my friend. A school open to anyone who wishes to learn music, love it and share their blessing with the rest of the world. Oh, Lili, this is my dream! Do you hear the legendary music playing, Lili? It is all I wish, to give my music to anyone who can hear, to keep music—real, true classical music—alive in hearts and souls as well as youthful minds, that only need direction to aid their journey to find the bountiful land of music. This is what Japan needs in its moment of revitalization, in its necessity to rebuild. Let us soar to new heights through God's true music. Let us show the next generation and the generation after that—that love of music is the correct path to life. No more war, no more death, but the music of life! Life lived fully, with the ability to express every emotion of the heart, mind and soul—through music! Let us give the power of hope and love and joy back again to my homeland, with a school just like this!" With tears in his eyes, Lili was moved, clearly seeing how much this dream meant to his friend.

"I, Argento Lili, will do this for you, Kira Yukai, you know!" With his pledge, Lili dances on lights through the air, in bouncing rhythm to the 'Salut d'Amour' playing in the background. "You have given me back my life and you have also given me back my belief that mankind deserves music such as this again, you know! From now on, I will live to make your wonderful dream a reality! We will spread hope and joy and love around the hearts of Japan with the power of music, Kira Yukai! Your dream will become my same dream, too, you know! Your new school's theme song, will be this one — created by Elgar, the great composer. I will bless you and your school and watch over every one of your descendents, for as long as there's breath in my body, you know! All the days of my life, I, Argento Lili, will keep your dream to spread the love of music alive. I promise! I promise, you know! I promise...My eternal friend...I promise...you know.."

* * *

"...I promise, you know..."

In the duffel bag, Lili springs to life, as if awakening a sleeping giant in the pint sized form of a tiny fairy. His dreamy hallucinations were so real to him that he magically pops out of the bag placed on Tsuzuki Mari's lap and finds himself staring right into Kira Yukai's face again...

Or was it?

"What are **YOU** doing here, Argento? Argh..." Kira growls low, angered that the annoying twit of a fairy would dare to disturb his one vacation — an actual vacation, one for pleasure — and make it a totally unpleasurable circus like the cursed thing always does.

"Keeping a promise I made to your grandfather, you know, Kira Akihiko!" Lili brightly smiles, sparkling as he zips around Kira's head, until the man hangs it into his hands with a decided groan.

"What promise? To haunt me for the whole of my sorry life?" Kira grumbles sourly, his head still clutched in his exasperated hands, feeling all visage of this pleasure trip destroyed in the single wave of a teeny, tiny wand.

"No, Kira Akihiko!" Lili literally shouts in Kira's ear, and Mari glances around to see if any other passengers on the plane were hearing or seeing the terse mystical conversation.

But obviously there were no true music lovers on this plane who were either awake or not listening to a movie playing on their headphones.

"The promise to bless his descendant, you, and SeisoAcademy, and continue to spread music around the world, you know!" Lili answers, flying around their heads at dizzying speeds. "That was your grandfather's dream. That was what I promised him, because **HE** was a good man, you know!" Lili sticks out his tongue at Kira, his cold ways always causing the hot blood in the Fata to rise.

"At least you're right about that, Fata. My grandfather was the best kind of man—gentle spirited, understanding, loving of his wife and family. He was the kind of man anyone could look up to and be proud of." Looking away with a far off stare through the airplane window, into the distance, Kira shows a tender side for once. His '_Ojisan_' Yukai had inspired him with a love of music and the violin that had caused the young Akihiko to take it up as his destined instrument, and love it just as much—until someone he loved even more than the music, who was part of his violin's joy, was ripped from his soul.

But maybe with Tsuzuki Mari's help, he could learn to love the violin for not only the joy, but the hope too, and make his grandfather proud again.

"Your grandfather was my very good friend, you know, Kira Akihiko. I know he would have been proud of you for what you did for Hino Kahoko today, too, you know." Lili says in his most calm, earnest tones that neither Kira nor Mari had ever heard. There were traces of sadness in his cracking voice that was soon overridden with the pride in it for grandfather and grandson both today.

"Is that so?" Kira remarks, not so abrasively this time, his piercing red eyes softening.

Seizing this as the most fortuitous of times, Mari decides to whip out the special parcel she'd been trying to give the Director for days now. Everything had now finally fallen into proper place for her to do so, perfectly as if she'd planned it.

"I'd like you to have this." Mari's musical voice softly interrupts the 'tender' moment. She plants the brown paper wrapped package on Kira's surprised lap.

"With all that is going on, I'd forgotten about this." Kira smiles, wondering what could cause calm, collected Tsuzuki Mari to look so anxious.

"What is it, you know?" His anger subsided, Lili's curiosity was piqued, too, as Kira slowly, carefully begins to unwrap the package.

"Here! Let me open it! Slowpoke, you know!" Now Lili was like a little kid at Christmastime when it came to presents—and a little kid with a magic wand could simply zap the wrapper from existence in a blink to Kira's chagrin, in his tingling fingertips.

But all thoughts of smart retorts are vanished away when his cloudy eyes lay upon the framed black and white photograph of a man with dark hair, whose radiant, sparkling personality was so recognizable to Kira, even before the gangly youth in the picture was exchanged for an aged smile.

"Yukai, you know!" Lili was all but stifling tears again.

"Grandfather? How did you find this, Mari? It must be from..." Kira tries to calculate the years but couldn't quite place when the youthful figure in his early twenties had posed for the photograph, standing inside the new wing of what looked like a school.

"1946, I believe. The year before your Grandfather returned to Japan and founded SeisoAcademy." Mari smiles into Kira's eyes. "I discovered this while I was visiting the Dommusikverein und Mozarteum near Salzburg."

"It is very kind of you, Mari. I really have very few pictures of Grandfather, and never one so young..." Kira begins to thank the woman, recalling how Yukai Ojisan was always the one who took the photos of his beautiful violinist wife and their children. Photography had been his pet hobby and yet, he was rarely pictured in them  
himself.

"He is very young, just twenty-one years old, visiting Salzburg's Cultural Institution's new wing for the last time before coming home to Yokohama to begin making his dream of a music school in Japan a reality."

"That's right! The Salzburg Dommusikverein was your grandfather's inspiration for SeisoAcademy, you know! The students were playing Elgar's 'Salut d'Amour' so invitingly that day, you know. They were opening a new wing, you know."

"Yes, Grandfather always spoke highly of how important that day was. He told of how important that precise moment was to his life's ideal. It was the critical turning point in his life. Grandfather was always like that—dreaming big dreams of spreading music by building a school at his home in Japan." Kira rather proudly states of his patriarch, wondering if he could've risen to that moment, as Yukai did, and surpass every expectation. He smiles to Mari, catching the light in her eyes that made him now curious as Lili dances about the air behind them, unseen.

"A special, blessed day, wouldn't you say?" Mari raises her eyebrows, implying a deeper meaning.

"Yes, very." Kira agrees, smiling down at his beloved Grandfather's all-encompassing grin that never did change. "I still remember the sparkle in his eye when he spoke of that special moment."

"Yes, look carefully—do you see what I see? To the left of your Grandfather's shoulder?" Mari asks, biting her lip as she, too, peers at the framed 8 x 10" photo and famed man upon it.

Kira's grandfather was standing at the entrance to the new wing, where a brand new set of mirrors were adorning the walls above the inset fireplace. A gleaming new mirror that showed Yukai's back also seemed to have a particularly iridescent sparkle above his shoulder.

"Argento Lili." Glancing from still photo to real life nuisance, doing the selfsame maneuver directly behind his own head, Kira breathes in disbelief at the all too familiar blue and yellow glow dancing above and behind his grandfather's head. "I didn't think it was possible for physical camera lenses to catch sight of a Fata." Kira states low, so as not for Lili to hear, amidst the blissful fairy's reminiscent humming of 'Salut d'Amour.'

"Perhaps shining in the power of 'Salut d'Amour,' which Lili seems to have taken on as his heart's most favored theme, along with the pledge he made to your grandfather—to keep music alive with the blessing of his new school's ideal—is what gave Lili extra radiance so everyone that day could have seen him and his love for music, if they only looked with their hearts." Mari conjectures, letting theromanticism the girls had taught this once calculating woman take hold of her prim, cool heart and fly on the melody of violin strings.

The scene of the dark man and his blessed Fata was replayed almost to precision by his grandson and the same blessing. Mari revels in the uncanny resemblance, admiring every line of Kira Akihiko's handsome face that was even more so in this second, as he seems to realize the bond between he and Lili was part of both their destinies, intertwined forever in the love for music that would keep them together through the ages.

Glitters float midair behind Kira's resigned shoulder as the stoic Director plays the notes of an unforgotten 'Salut d'Amour' almost involuntarily and imperceptibly with his fingers on an invisible violin as he continues to study the photo and Lili hums the tune, tapping his own little digits in time, with the glorious music on Kira Akihiko's shoulder, just as he did all those years before to another friend of music...

Tsuzuki Mari smiles as she witnesses the poignant scene, sure that this promising to be romantic Paris vacation was going to be just fine now.

Fata and man had come together in a common bond they both shared—their mutual love of music, made reality by the belief and goodness of a single man, long ago, who knew that charity, hope and love, were all three bonded forever immortal by the Heaven-sent gift, blessed to all who were willing to listen to its beauty, take hold and keep it in their hearts forever...

* * *

The notes waft high and low, far and wide, through the clear blue skies that carried them to their destination and far beyond. The crystal pure song passes over Vienna, where an operatic duo feel the sudden urge to glance up to the sky and harmonize with the promise of life's new song that is carried upon the windswept miles, crossing oceans over to the students who love music and cherish each other within it on a _Brand New Breeze_...

The melody, soft and warm, carries to a certain redhead, and she leans back from viewing the skyscape through the window to the welcome chest of her destined soulmate. A playful hand reaches up to caress his pale blue aura, a contented blissful smile upon her face, knowing here is where she always belonged, within the symphony of his loving gaze. For this fated pair of violinists had been brought together by the legendary Violin Romance in an everlasting duet, their lives forever changed by the bond of ageless music's golden cords, wafting notes high up into Heaven...

The golden cord of music and its wondrous power to create strong bonds of endless, eternal Love...

**The End**


	77. LaCorda D'Oro Crescendo COMPLETE message

_**Min'na-sama! Here it is! I promised myself to finish by my birthday and we made it!**_

_**OUR BOOK'S TRULY COMPLETELY COMPLETE NOW!**_

_**Thank you all so much for enduring through all these months of revisions of this Corda sequel epic with us!  
It's been quite a journey, hasn't it?! **_

_**12 couples, 76 chapters, 216,000+ words later (wow!) **_

_As an author who cherishes her work, I couldn't let the chapter go until every character expressed their sentiments of love for one another fully. _

_I wanted to allow Len, Ryo, Keiichi, Kazuki-san, Azuma-sama, Aoi-san, Kiriya, Sho-chan, Shinobunny, Yosuke, Kanayan and Akihiko-san the freedom to live and love their respective partners as they do in my mind, my heart, and now my soul. And in so doing, I've fallen in love with more than a few of these talented bishonens myself along the way!_

_It means so much to us that you've been enjoying watching our Corda boys and girls make futures filled with the promise of music and romance together!_

_Thank you for your kind comments and favorites! We appreciate it greatly!_

_We wanted to incorporate the new characters-Shoma and Yosuke, as much as possible, as well as giving all the Corda boys and girls equal airtime for love and romance!_

_So, please, sit back and reread the entire story from the beginning! You won't be disappointed as there are LOTS of new twists, turns, whole new chapters and especially, true romance between our favorite boys and girls !_

_**This is the new, revised and 100% completed version.  
**_**Thoroughly checked, painstakingly proofed, and poured over with the golden cord of love by Lili!**

* * *

**_Now, as a special final treat for the author's August BIRTHDAY, let's have a fun corner! _**

**_I'd love to hear which couple each of my readers enjoyed the adventures of most in the story!_**

_Was your favorite:_

_**Len x Kahoko ?**_

_**Ryou x Mizue ?**_

_**Keiichi x Shoko ?**_

_**Kazuki x Miyabi ?**_

_**Azuma x Ayano ?**_

_**Aoi x Manami ?**_

_**Kiriya x Megumi ?**_

_**Shoma x Mio ?**_

_**Shinobu x Nami ?**_

_**Yosuke x Nao ?**_

_**Kanayan x Caterina ?**_

_**Akihiko x Mari ?**_

_I must admit, I myself started out with a definite preference for one Seiso boy, but by the end of this long romantic tale, was head over heels for another. (Guess who, for a Lili Bravo bonus! ^_^)_

_YEAH! Looking forward to your replies on this first annual __**"La Corda D'oro 2c Crescendo Romance Survey!"**_

_Once more I want to say 'thank you' for reading and watching us! We are so grateful to be able to share our fondness for NeoRomance with you and would appreciate any comments or feedback!_

_God bless you as you sprinkle the fairy dust and spread the love of music around the world!_

_~HarukaKou~_


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